Under Hollow Hills Complete Text Preview

Meguey & Vincent Baker
Under Hollow Hills
Prerelease
February 2021
©2021 by Meguey Baker & D. Vincent Baker. Do not distribute.

Permission granted to print or duplicate for personal use.
1
Under Hollow Hills
Contents
Introduction: The Circus & the Game 7
The Circus 8
& The Game 8
Playbooks 10
Summer & Winter Imagery 12
Plays, Dice & Consequences 13
Places & Performances 14
Consent & Communication Tools 15
Chapter 1: Circus Playbooks 17

Creating a Character 18
The Playbooks 20
The Boondoggle Hob 21
The Chieftain Mouse 24
The Crooked Wand 27
The Crowned Stag 30
The Feather-Cloak 33
The Interloper 36
The Lantern Jack 39
The Lostling 42
The Nightmare Horse 45
The Seeker 48
The Stick Figure 51
The Troll 55
The Winding Rose 58
An Example Character: Harebrake, the Boondoggle Hob 61
An Example Character: Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand 62
An Example Character: Jill Cowdrey, the Interloper 63
An Example Character: Tip, the Lantern Jack 64
An Example Character:The Teapot Girl, the Stick Figure 65
2
Chapter 2: Plays & Consequences 66
Making Your Plays 67
The Obvious Plays 69
Confront Someone 70
Draw Someone Out 71
Open Up to Someone 72
Put Someone Off 75
Size Someone Up 76
Waylay Someone 77
Call for a Line 78
Sniff the Wind 79
Use Your Trappings 80
Weather the Storm 81
Fighting 82
Helping Each Other Out 84
Playbook Plays 85
Consequences 90
Fleeting Consequences & Momentum 90
Summer & Winter (&c) 93
Insults 95
Favors 96
Violence 97
Love 100
Chapter 3: Sessions & Shows 101

Sessions & Shows 102
The Outline of a Session 102
The Power of Your Performance 106
Show Plays 107
NPC Performers & Problem People 109
An Example Show 110
Intermission: A Miscellany 121

Fairyland, the Mortal Human World, 122
the World Between, & Otherwise
The Fairy Seasons 122
Games Fairies Play 123
A Glossary 126
Sources & Inspiration 135
3
Chapter 4: The Mistress of Ceremonies’ Timelines 138
Before the First Session 139
Creating Characters 140
Beginning the Session 141
Beginning Play 142
In the Early Session 143
Mid-Session: Planning Their Show 143
Playing Out Their Show 144
After Their Show: Ending the Session 145
Subsequent Sessions 145
Chapter 5: The Mistress of Ceremonies’ 146

Principles & Plays
Your Principles 147
Your Plays 148
When to Make Your Plays 148
Your Own Plays 149
Your NPCs’ Plays 152
Your Places’ Plays 153
Your Plays’ Consequences 154
Chapter 6: Occasions: Places to Perform 155

& Audiences to Perform For
Occasions 156
In Fairyland: A Betrothing 159
In Fairyland: The Breaking of the Ice 164
In Fairyland: The Celebration of the Hunt 169
In Fairyland: A Closed Bridge 174
In Fairyland: A Funeral 179
In Fairyland: A Gift-Giving Occasion 183
In Fairyland: The Goblin Market 187
In Fairyland: A Harvest Murder 192
In Fairyland: The Horrible Feast 197
In Fairyland: Freeform Occasions 201
In the Human World: An Arts Festival 206
In the Human World: Lost in the Woods 211
In the Human World: A Rite of Passage 216
In the Human World: A Thinning of the Veil 221
Anywhere: We Are Ourselves the Occasion 222
4
Chapter 7: The Mistress of Ceremonies’ Characters 224
Creating NPCs 225
Fairy Kinds 226
Elfin-kind 228
Fairy Nobility 229
Ghostly Kind 230
Giant-kind 231
Goblin-kind 232
Homely-kind 233
Mortal Human Kind 234
Nymph-kind: Lily-nymphs, Reed-nymphs, & Willow-kind 235
Pastoral-kind 236
River-kind or Lake-kind, Mer-kind, & Dwellers in Pond & Pool 237
Sea-kind 238
Spider-kind 239
Tree-kind 240
Troll-kind 241
Twilight-kind 242
Wild-kind 243
Winter-kind 244
Witch-kind 245
Wizard-kind 246
World-kind 247
Other Kinds 248
NPCs in the Circus 250
An Example Occasion & NPCs: The Summer Hunt 252
Chapter 8: The Tour 257

The Tour 258
Planning a Show 259
Circus Players: the Tour In Play 260
MC: the Tour In Prep 261
5
Conclusion: Rules Summary 263
The Circus & the Game 263
Circus Playbooks 264
Plays & Consequences 264
Sessions & Shows 265
The MC’s Timelines 265
The MC’s Principles & Plays 266
Occasions 266
The MC’s Characters (NPCs) 267
The Tour 267
Appendix: Notes & Downloads 272
6
Introduction:
The Circus & the Game
Rules
^^ The game is about the performers and crew of a circus traveling
through fairyland and the mortal world.
^^ Each of you has a role that you play, called your playbook. Your
playbook gives you a unique role in the conversation, and special
conversational rules you can use.
^^ One of you takes the role of Mistress of Ceremonies. You’re
responsible for the places the circus performs and the audiences it
performs for. You prepare a unique playbook for each performance.
^^ The rest of you take the roles of the circus’ performers and workers,
according to the playbooks you choose.
^^ Your playbook gives you “plays” you can make: rules you can follow
to expand the conversation or change its direction. When you make a
play, roll dice and proceed according to your roll.
^^ Every session of the game is a new place for you to perform and a
new audience to perform for. You arrive, you get the lay of the land,
you meet your audience, you plan your performance, and finally you
perform. Your performance has the power to change things here, so
you decide how to use that power.
^^ The game and its system of plays are designed to protect and preserve
your consent and communication as a player, and also to be compatible
with any support & communication tools you choose to bring with
you from outside the game.
7
֍
The Circus
֍
T here is a traveling circus under the Hollow Hills.

It travels by moonlight, small wagons creaking in the night silence. It
travels lost roads, where fireflies and whisps hover to watch it pass, where
goblins peer down from their treebranch perches, and owls. It travels the
night world and the day world, fairyland and the living earth, and places
otherwise, and no border can keep it.
You are its performers and its crew, its ringmaster, its clowns and
tumblers, its lookouts and roustabouts, its planners and problem-solvers, its
stars. You are its celebrated headliners and you are the fugitives who travel,
opportunistically, with it. You are the mysteries it poses, the dramas it per-
forms; you are music, juggling, acts of death-defying peril, pratfall comedy,
you are moments of beauty and moments of loss. You are the circus and the
circus is you. You have dangerous secrets to tell.
You go where you go and you perform where you choose. To you, a
human child’s birthday party in a vacant lot is the same as a command per-
formance of the great Crowned Heads of Fairyland. (And more like stuffed
heads, saith the Hob.)
Wherever you perform, you change: you change the seasons, you
change the fortunes of those you perform for, you open their eyes, you
awaken their hearts, you lull them to sleep. You change yourselves. This is
the game: we change.
Step up, step up. Come great, come small, come revelers all!
& The Game

Under Hollow Hills is a game of the imagination, of whimsy, of words.
To play, you’ll need a group of 3–6 players, including you, and at least
90 minutes’ time set aside.
The game has no set ending or end goal. You can play it once, twice, a
dozen times running. Each time you play, each episode or session, is one
complete performance of the fairy circus: the circus arrives in a new place
8
in fairyland or in the mortal world. It sets up, it gets the lay of the land,
takes the measure of its audience, drums up enthusiasm, gives its audience
to know what to expect. It renews old acquaintance and makes new friend-
ships and enmities, leaves performers behind in disgrace or in retirement,
takes on new performers as they present themselves. It conducts itself
withal with dignity or otherwise, and ultimately performs, to the audience’s
applause and acclaim, or else to its dismay. Here ends the episode, and you
can end the game here, or else schedule a next episode with your friends,
and do it all again anew.
Instead of playing on a board or in hands of cards, Under Hollow Hills
plays in the conversation you have with your fellow players. Each of you
takes on a certain role, called your “playbook,” which gives you both a posi-
tion in the conversation and special conversational rules for you to follow.
For example, if your playbook is the Boondoggle Hob, you might be called
upon to speak as the circus’ ringmaster, announcing its acts and addressing
its audience with banter; and when you do so, you might roll dice and ask
questions about how your audience responds: are the excited? relieved?
frightened? blasé? If, on the other hand, your playbook is the Stick Figure,
a clown and acrobat, you will likely be called upon to describe your antic
performances, rolling dice for a creative spur: is your performance comical
or restrained, death-defying or absurd, surprisingly scary or surprisingly
touching?
This is how it is for each player: You’re in conversation together,
addressing and answering one another, acting out your own special roles
and following your own special rules, as the game plays and as the story of
the circus unfolds.
And follow along, follow along! saith the Hob. Why are we standing at the
threshold when the door is open? Next is to choose playbooks: step through!
9
֍
Playbooks
֍
B efore you play, choose a playbook.

One of you must play the Mistress of Ceremonies, the MC, Under
Hollow Hills’ game master.
(Note that while “mistress” may be a gendered word, gender is a game in
fairyland, and you can play it however suits you.)
Your job isn’t to play a fairy in the circus, but to give the circus places
to perform and audiences to perform for. You get to run ahead of the circus
planting thorn bushes, you get to make one audience member bored and
another eager, and you get to shout helpful suggestions whenever you have
one. You get to throw roses and peanut shells.
Someone should volunteer now!
Everyone else, choose one of these circus playbooks:
^^ The Boondoggle Hob: Goblin kind, strong, wry, grand, and uncouth.
^^ The Chieftain Mouse: Mousey kind, valorous, honorable, romantic,
and loyal. (Note that while “chieftain” may be a gendered word, gender is
a game in fairyland, and you can play it however suits you.)
^^ The Crooked Wand: Witchy kind, practical, private, insightful, and
calculating.
^^ The Crowned Stag: Fairy nobility, regal, generous, self-involved, and
radiant. (Note that while “stag” may be a gendered word, gender is a game
in fairyland, and you can play it however suits you.)
^^ The Feather-Cloak: Shifty kind, and a bird, resourceful, cheerful,
busy, graceful, and humble.
^^ The Interloper: A mortal human being who’s intruding into fairyland
in disguise, intending to steal fairy treasure.
^^ The Lantern Jack: Pisky kind, enchanting, sprightly, full of fun and
malice.
^^ The Lostling: A mortal human being lost or stolen into fairyland,
now at home here.
10
^^ The Nightmare Horse: Unique and yourself, guiler, bewitcher,
dweller in night sky and deep water.
^^ The Seeker: A mortal human being who’s come boldly into fairyland,
seeking something or someone the fairies have stolen.
^^ The Stick Figure: A made thing given life and animation by magic,
curious, naive, foolish, and self-aware.
^^ The Troll: Troll kind, powerful, undignified, dangerous, and patient.
^^ The Winding Rose: Flora kind, tough, beautiful, temperamental,
with no patience for fools.
Additional Playbooks?
These 13 are only the core set of Under Hollow Hills’ circus playbooks.
Many other playbooks exist, and many more are possible, each with its own
take or twist on the fairy, creature, or person it presents.
Any player can bring additional playbooks to the game with them.
When you do, show the playbook to the group and make sure that every-
one’s happy to include it in the game.
The 13 core playbooks are laid out in full in Chapter 1: the Circus
Playbooks.
11
֍
Summer & Winter Imagery
֍
W hen you create your character, you create two lists

of images, one for summer and one for winter. (If you’re playing a human
character: bold and careful, free and careful, or otherwise; but the rules are
the same.) Use this imagery when you describe yourself and your trappings.
You begin play in full summer (or fully bold, or fully free), but you’ll
step back and forth between Summer and Winter over the course of play.
As you do, you change your imagery to match.
Suppose that you’re this version of the Boondoggle Hob:
 Mushrooms, the bullfrog  Fish bones
 Luminous eyes  Bristly hair
 Berry black  Pumpkin brown
 Stolen clothing, silk gown  Stained apron
 Mannish, forbidding  Womanish
At the beginning of the game, you’re in full summer. When you
describe your stolen silk gown, you can describe it as berry black. You can
describe your bullfrog-like, bulging, luminous eyes, your wiry beard, and
your forbidding scowl.
But imagine that, over the course of a few sessions of play, you’ve
stepped several steps toward winter:
 Mushrooms, the bullfrog  Fish bones
 Luminous eyes  Bristly hair
 Berry black  Pumpkin brown
 Stolen clothing, silk gown  Stained apron
 Mannish, forbidding  Womanish
Now you can say that you’ve put an old apron over your gown, pump-
kin-brown with stains. You can say that your eyes still glow but they’re
sunken now, not bulging like a bullfrog’s. You can even say that your teeth
have sharpened until they’re like translucent needles, sharp as fish bones.
As you step from summer to winter and back, use your imagery to
signal the changes to your fellow players.
12
֍
Plays, Dice & Consequences
֍
Y our playbook gives you both a role to play in the game,

and your own special conversational rules to follow and invoke. Many of
the conversational rules in the game are called “plays,” as in, “I’m going to
make a play for it,” “I’m playing it close to the vest for now,” or “how are you
going to play this?”
For the circus players, your plays are direct, and take your character’s
point of view, like “confront someone,” “draw someone out,” “take someone’s
breath away,” or “retreat behind thorns.” They’re listed in your playbook.
When you make a play, roll dice to narrow the range of options you
can choose from. Roll two 6-sided dice, add them together, then add your
playbook’s modifier for that play. For instance, you might roll 2d6-1 when
you confront someone, but 2d6+2 when you draw someone out.
As you step from summer toward winter and back, you also step your
plays’ rolls up and down, so that your imagery and your plays reflect each
other. Your plays’ rolls are, like you, never the same.
When you roll, a final sum of 7 or higher is a strong play, called a “hit.”
A final sum of 10 or higher is a very strong play, a “10+ hit.” A final sum of
6 or less is a misplay, called a “miss.”
Each play describes the immediate consequences of a hit or a miss, and
you should all follow them closely.
Your plays are listed in your playbook, and are laid out in Chapter 2:
Plays & Consequences.
For the Mistress of Ceremonies, you have three three different sets of
plays to make: NPC plays, which the various inhabitants of fairyland and
the mortal human world make; place plays, which fairyland or the mortal
human world make on their own behalf; and MCs’ plays, procedural moves
like “call for a break” or “go around the table in turn.”
You don’t roll dice for your plays. Instead you simply announce them
by name, or describe them implicitly, and let the other players’ respond how
they choose.
Your plays are laid out in Chapter 6: the MC’s Principles & Plays.
13
֍
Places & Performances
֍
T he game follows the circus’ tour. You come to a place

and meet the people who’ll be your audience. You talk to them, you feel
them out, sniff the wind, get the lay of the land. You announce yourselves,
set up your performance, sell tickets or issue invitations, plan your show.
Ultimately, you perform, giving your audience the performance they want,
or, perhaps, the performance you think they deserve. After that, strike your
tents, collect your measure, and move on! Your next audience awaits.
It’s the Mistress of Ceremonies’ job to create the place and the people
in advance, before you play, and it’s their job to present them to you and
speak for them.
The outline of the session is laid out in Chapter 3: Sessions & Shows.
The Mistress of Ceremonies’ playbooks for creating occasions, venues
and audiences are laid out in Chapter 7: Occasions. They are:
^^ In Fairyland: A Betrothing
^^ In Fairyland: The Breaking of the Ice
^^ In Fairyland: A Celebration of the Hunt
^^ In Fairyland: A Closed Bridge
^^ In Fairyland: A Funeral
^^ In Fairyland: A Gift-Giving Occasion
^^ In Fairyland: The Goblin Market
^^ In Fairyland: A Harvest Murder
^^ In Fairyland: The Horrible Feast
^^ In Fairyland: Freeform Occasions
^^ In the Mortal Human World: An Arts Festival
^^ In the Mortal Human World: Lost in the Woods
^^ In the Mortal Human World: A Rite of Passage
^^ In the Mortal Human World: A Thinning of the Veil
^^ In Any World, or Between Them: We Are Ourselves the Occasion
An optional system for connecting performances together is laid out in
Chapter 4: The Tour.
14
֍
Consent & Communication Tools
֍
S ince Under Hollow Hills plays out in your

conversation with your friends, it’s designed to make communication
between you quick, easy, and reliable. You can count on the rules to help
you speak and be heard, ask questions and be answered.
Holding your dice:
In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to accidentally talk over someone
or get talked over yourself. When you have something to say, or a play to
make, but you don’t need to interrupt the person who’s speaking, you can
hold your two dice in your fist out into the middle of the play space. This is
a signal that you need to be heard before play can proceed.
Watch for the other players to make the signal too. You don’t want to
talk over them either.
If the other players miss the signal and overstep you, it doesn’t count.
Tell everybody to back up, do overs. No rolls stand, and nothing happened,
until you’ve had your say.
Calling for a line, weathering the storm:
When a situation is developing in a way you don’t like, but you don’t
want or need to interrupt the game to address it, there are two plays you
can use to deal with it.
Weathering the storm is a play for when a situation is developing
against you, but not in a way that you can’t abide. “Oh no, this is bad. Let’s
see where it ends up.”
Calling for a line is for when a situation is developing against you, and
you don’t want it to, but you can’t see how to redirect it all by yourself. You
want or need the other players to back you up. “Oh no, this is bad. Help me
out here?”
Calling for a line and weathering the storm are laid out in detail in
Chapter 2: Plays & Consequences.
15
Interrupting the game:
However, when a situation in play is developing in a way you don’t like,
you might prefer to address it directly with the other players. It’s always
appropriate to interrupt play at any time, for any reason you need.
Extra-game Support Tools:
While Under Hollow Hills is designed to protect and preserve your
ongoing consent and communication throughout play, it’s also appropriate
to bring external support tools into the game with you, if you use them.
Present your chosen support tools to the group and get their buy-in
before you play.
Dice fudging:
If you prefer to roll your dice behind your hand, on your phone, or
casually out of others’ view, so you can fudge them if you need to, you may.
16
Chapter 1:
Circus Playbooks
Rules
^^ Choose a playbook.
^^ Follow the rules in your playbook to create your character.
^^ At the end of creating your character, introduce your character to
the group, then go around for “bindings,” special rules that make the
relationships between you more concrete and more unique.
^^ The Mistress of Ceremonies doesn’t choose a circus playbook. You
create places and occasions for the circus to perform instead.
17
֍
Creating a Character
֍
T o create your character, choose your playbook, then

create your name, your summer & winter (or the equivalent, for human
characters), your plays, your place, your trappings, and your bindings.
All of the playbooks share these rules.
Your job as a player is to:
^^ Make your character vivid.
^^ Play your part in the circus.
^^ Take the bad with the good.
Your Name:
^^ Follow your playbook’s rules to create your name.
Your Summer & Winter Imagery, for Fairy Characters:
^^ From each of the five lists of images in your playbook, choose 1 for
summer and 1 for winter.
^^ You can choose 2 sometimes if you want to, why shouldn’t you?
^^ Begin play in full summer: mark all of the lines in the summer
column.
^^ Choose your pronouns for summer and for winter too.
Your Bold, Free, & Careful Imagery, for Mortal Human Characters:
^^ From each of the lists in your playbook, choose 1.
^^ You can choose 2 sometimes if you want to, why shouldn’t you?
^^ For each that you’ve chosen, customize it. Characterize it differently
for bold and for careful, or for free and for careful.
^^ Begin play fully bold or fully free: mark all of the lines in that column.
^^ Choose your pronouns for bold and for careful, or for free and for
careful, too.
Your Place in the Circus:
^^ In the circus, at need, you can take any and all of your playbook’s
listed roles.
18
Your Plays:
^^ You can make all of the obvious plays, and your own playbook’s plays.
^^ Mark +2 next to your choice of three plays, +0 next to two, -1 next to
two, and +1 next to all of the rest.
^^ In total: +2, +2, +2, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1, 0, 0, -1, -1.
^^ These are only your plays’ starting rolls; you’ll have many
opportunities to change them.
Your Trappings:
^^ You get all of your playbook’s listed trappings.
Your Bindings:
^^ Everybody introduces themselves. On your turn, tell everyone
your name, your playbook, your summer imagery (or your bold or
free imagery, for human characters), your place in the circus, your
playbook plays, your wagon, and any other trappings you think the
rest of the players might find noteworthy. Answer any questions
anybody has for you.
^^ Once everyone’s introduced themselves, go around again for bindings.
On your turn, ask for volunteers for your playbook’s bindings.
^^ If no one volunteers, so be it and move on. If more than one volunteers,
accept them all, choose one, or ask them to decide between them, as
you like.
^^ On the others’ turns, volunteer as you choose.
19
֍
The Playbooks
֍
^^ The Boondoggle Hob: Goblin kind, strong, wry, grand, and uncouth.
^^ The Chieftain Mouse: Mousey kind, valorous, honorable, romantic,
and loyal. (Note that while “chieftain” may be a gendered word, gender is
a game in fairyland, and you can play it however suits you.)
^^ The Crooked Wand: Witchy kind, practical, private, insightful, and
calculating.
^^ The Crowned Stag: Fairy nobility, regal, generous, self-involved, and
radiant. (Note that while “stag” may be a gendered word, gender is a game
in fairyland, and you can play it however suits you.)
^^ The Feather-Cloak: Shifty kind, and a bird, resourceful, cheerful,
busy, graceful, and humble.
^^ The Interloper: A mortal human being who’s intruding into fairyland
in disguise, intending to steal fairy treasure.
^^ The Lantern Jack: Pisky kind, enchanting, sprightly, full of fun and
malice.
^^ The Lostling: A mortal human being lost or stolen into fairyland,
now at home here.
^^ The Nightmare Horse: Unique and yourself, guiler, bewitcher,
dweller in night sky and deep water.
^^ The Seeker: A mortal human being who’s come boldly into fairyland,
seeking something or someone the fairies have stolen.
^^ The Stick Figure: A made thing given life and animation by magic,
curious, naive, foolish, and self-aware.
^^ The Troll: Troll kind, powerful, undignified, dangerous, and patient.
^^ The Winding Rose: Flora kind, tough, beautiful, temperamental,
with no patience for fools.
20
֍
The Boondoggle Hob
֍
Y ou are the Boondoggle Hob. You’re goblin kind:

strong, wry, grand and uncouth.
Your Name:
Choose a name that sounds like nonsense.
Examples: Ermatilla, Harebrake, Kimbledorn, Nighley Bluw.
Your Summer & Winter Imagery:
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Fish bones, humus, mushrooms,
may thorn, wormy apples, beetles, churned mud, spring peepers, the
bullfrog, the rooting boar, poison ivy.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Crooked nose, lumpy face, long
jaw, pointed ears, pointed face, luminous eyes, shaggy hair, spiky hair,
bristly hair, lined face, ugly face, glittering eyes.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Berry red, berry black, pine green,
pumpkin brown, cream, periwinkle.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Stolen clothing, golden fillet, satin
gown, heeled boots, silk shoes & pattens, working clothes, tidy apron,
stained apron, shapeless felt hat.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Mannish, womanish, androgynish,
boyish, girlish, childish, queerish, sexy, sexless, charming, forbidding,
enticing, unapproachable, —.
You can choose 2 sometimes if you want to, why shouldn’t you?
Choose your pronouns for summer and for winter as well.
Your Place:
^^ Ringmaster;  Cook
^^ Performer;  Heel dragger
^^ Always there to comment upon others’ work.
Your Plays:
You can make all of the obvious plays, and you can:
^^ Distract them with tricks & visions
^^ Provoke them
^^ Make yourself something else
^^ Shrug it off
21
Your Trappings:
^^ A big, rumbling wagon pulled by a pair of surly bull-pigs.
^^ A polished, knotted skull-club, and a wicked little hook-shaped knife.
^^ A raw hide war coat, stained with old adventures, shedding wiry hairs.
^^ A pet snake, yellow and black like a hornet, but more wicked and not
so tame.
^^ A traveling kitchen, jumbled, full of good smells.
^^ Books of children’s stories, homey recipes, jovial songs, and accounts
of murder.
^^ A knothole of wood, peer through it and you see what’s invisible.
^^ If you’d like to add any other prostheses, sensory aids, communication
aids, or mobility aids, please do:
Your Bindings:
^^ — finds themself consistently on my bad side, all undeserving. Every
session, I must find some reason to confront them, if I can. Who?
^^ I’ve taken an absolutely unaccountable liking to —. Every session, I
must draw them out, if at all possible. Who?
Boondoggle Hob Plays

When you distract someone with tricks & visions, roll. On a 10+ hit,
choose 3 of the following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 2.
• You make something appear from nowhere. What?
• You make something disappear from someone’s hand, to reappear
elsewhere. What and where?
• You make something disappear from someone’s hand, never to reappear,
except perhaps in your own pocket later. What?
• You change something into a bird and release it to fly away. What?
• You feed something to something and make it reappear in your hand. What
and to what?
• You summon a vision in the air, of something beautiful, terrible, whimsical,
or sentimental. What?
…And meanwhile, on any hit, no one who can watch your tricks can pay
attention to anything else. On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong. They
might have you choose 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps
you give the game away.
22
When you provoke someone, roll. On any hit, say something mild,
harmless, innocuous, inoffensive, and they absolutely must consider it a
terrible insult. On a 10+ hit, furthermore, without realizing it, they’ve
taken a weapon into their hand. On a miss, say something that they rightly
should consider a terrible insult, and if you can’t think of any such thing,
take it that they’ve insulted you.
When you make yourself something else, roll. On any hit, you become your
choice of:
• A big old croaking raven.
• A flight of a dozen starlings.
• Thousands of centipedes, millipedes, beetles, and worms.
• A single black wasp.
• A beautiful young deer, russet red, with a first year’s antlers.
• A quizzical and stubborn old mutt dog.
• A burning firebrand, pine-pitch smoky and scattering sparks.
You remain so transformed for as long as you choose. On a 10+ hit,
afterward, you can vanish into nothing and reappear later. On a 7–9 hit, at
the end of your transformation, you must return to your own naked self.
On a miss, instead of transforming yourself, you simply step to full winter.
When you’re wounded, shocked, affronted or dismayed, and you shrug it

off, roll. On any hit, you’re unhurt and unaffected and need not choose any
response at all. On a 10+ hit, you don’t even consider their attack to be an
insult, but on a 7–9 hit, you may. On a miss, your attacker chooses how you
must respond.
23
֍
The Chieftain Mouse
֍
Y ou are the Chieftain Mouse. You’re mousey kind:

valorous, honorable, romantic, and loyal.
Note that while “chieftain” is a gendered word, gender is a game in fairyland,
and you can play it however suits you.
Your Name:
Choose a mouse name, and be sure to choose one suitable for a mouse of
distinction.
Examples: Clover the Fearless, Ezekiel the Deadly, Anatole the Kind, Ruby
the Fierce
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Laughing brook, sunlight and
leaves, wind in tall grass, the forest floor in autumn, apples, the smell
of moss and water, river stones, the crisp winter morning.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Handsome whiskers, bright eyes,
buck teeth, cute face, soft fur, sober little face, thoughtful frown,
curious beauty.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Smoke gray, white, pale gray,
chestnut, dark brown, golden brown, golden blonde, strawberry
blonde, amber, rufus red.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Fancy clothing, velvet coat, velvet
cape, high boots, well-made plain clothing, worked mail, soft shoes,
wool hood, felt hat, rakish cap and cockade.
Your Place:
^^ Ringmaster;  Planner;
^^ Barker & caller;  Overseer of work;
^^ Always there with an observation.
24
Your Plays:
^^ Address them courteously  Seek out the little wild things
^^ Sit counsel with them  Summon the Mousy Clans
Your Trappings:
^^ A well-made painted cart with a high driver’s seat, pulled by a
comically small pony.
^^ A deft and sharp little sword.
^^ A heraldic shield, hung with pelts of weasel, mink, fox and owl.
^^ A boar spear nearly five feet long.
^^ Maps, histories, genealogies, and studies of flora and fauna.
^^ A blessed stone: place your hand on it and you cannot speak untrue.
Your Bindings:
^^ —, though not a mouse, has sworn allegiance to me. I can never lie to
them or deny to sit counsel with them. Who?
^^ — has, in the past, rendered worthy service to the Mousy Clans. I can
never put them off or waylay them. Who?
Chieftain Mouse Plays

When you address someone courteously, roll. On any hit, they must
answer you courteously in return, no matter their intentions or animosity
toward you. On a 10+ hit, furthermore, they must address everyone else
courteously as well, while you are present. On a miss, while they must
nevertheless answer you with courtesy, they may, if they choose, answer you
with a cutting and sarcastic false courtesy that you may consider an insult
or that may even wound you.
When you sit counsel with someone, roll. On any hit, hear them out, listen
carefully, and ask questions to better understand. When you’re ready, tell
them honestly what you think their best next play might be. If they make
that play, they roll it at +3. On a 7–9 hit, however, if they follow your
advice, they’re beholden to you, and if they decline to follow it, you may
take it as an insult. On a miss, give them unthinking bad advice, and if they
decline to follow it, you may take it as an insult.
25
When you seek out the little wild things, roll. On any hit, ask questions; the
MC must answer them truthfully. On a 10+ hit, ask 3. On a 7–9 hit, ask 2.
• What news from the little wild birds?
• What news from the bee clans?
• What news from the beetles and worms?
• What news from the star-chasing night winds?
• What news from the voles, the moles, the munks, and the other lesser clans?
• What news from the cousin bats?
• What news from the crows, whom I address from the safety of a brier?
• What news from the old sleepy cat, who no longer hunts?
• What news from the porcupine and the skunk, who fear none?
• What news from the bear, to whose ear I creep?
On a miss, in seeking out the little wild things, you’ve blundered into a
hunter. Ask the MC where you are and what’s doing.
When you summon the Mousy Clans, declare who you’re summoning, and
roll.
• A cadre of seasoned warrior mice, armed for fighting.
• A bonny hundred of worthy mice, eager to work, brawl, sing, dance, & play.
• The beauties of the clans, soft, sweet, playful, and pretty.
• The elders of the clans in all their wisdom.
• The Clans Entire, by their thousands and thousands.
On any hit, they answer your call at once. On a 7–9 hit, though, or on any
hit if you’re summoning the Clans Entire, the MC chooses a complication
that comes along with them:
• Their mothers.
• A rival clan’s chieftain to contest your rule.
• Renegade mice recognizing no clan.
• A panther.
On a miss, they don’t answer your call, or not in full or not at once, and the
MC chooses a complication to explain why.
26
֍
The Crooked Wand
֍
Y ou are the Crooked Wand. You’re witchy kind:

practical, private, insightful, and calculating.
Your Name:
Choose a common name, plus a fantastic name, a sinister image, or a
comforting image, and connect them together.
Examples: Granny Jack, Jenny Undertow, Alice Alivaker, Timothy Bones
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Broken branches, mud, ravens,
the trailing willow, torn lace, smoke from a chimney, drowned roots,
vine-twisted wood.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Wrinkled face, hidden beauty,
ageless beauty, shining eyes, hooded eyes, blinded eyes, cut out eyes,
knotted hair, long beard.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: White, gray, deep red, midnight
blue, black, brown.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Old clothing, knit gloves, shawl,
a floppy hat, a jaunty hat, a subtle brocade, elegant clothing, worn
clothing, an antique breastplate or helmet.
Your Place:
^^ Fortune teller;  Planner;
^^ Conjurer;  Problem solver;
^^ Always there with a secret to tell.
Your Plays:
^^ Blindfold them  Sink into the mud
^^ Lay them bare  Throw the bones
27
Your Trappings:
^^ A creaking weather-warped cart, pulled by a cheerful old ox.
^^ An old weapon, more interesting than it first looks.
^^ Someone’s antique bronze armor, given to you for safe keeping, you
forget whose.
^^ Birch-bark books written with words stolen from the creation of the
world.
^^ A shimmering golden thimble. Rap someone sharply with it and you
transform them into a bird, in which form they stay until you release
them or they sing the correct song; or a potted plant, in which form
they stay until you release them or they bloom flowers; or a hen’s egg,
in which form they stay until someone cracks the egg or they hatch
themselves.
^^ An annoying cat.
^^ A glowing hot coal that will never cool.
Your Bindings:
^^ I once turned — into a little bird, put them in a cage, and let my cat
stare at them with its yellow eyes. I can never again waylay them or
blindfold them. Who?
^^ — once revealed to me their heart’s true love and longing. I can never
put them off. Who?
Crooked Wand Plays

When you blindfold someone, roll. On any hit, you rob them of some of
their sense or some of their senses. On a 10+ hit, choose 2. On a 7–9 hit,
choose 1.
• They don’t notice what — is doing.
• They forget —.
• They feel safe and out of all danger.
• They feel lost, disoriented, and out of all certainty.
• Tell them something. They believe it uncritically, as long as they’re
blindfolded.
On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong. They might have you choose 1
anyway, but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps by blinding them to some
things, you’ll awaken their awareness to others.
28
When you lay someone bare, roll. On any hit, you reveal something to
them, about them. On a 10+ hit, choose 2. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.
• You reveal to them their secret heart.
• You reveal to them the hearts and natures of those nearest to them.
• You reveal to them their best way forward.
• You reveal to them their lost past.
Whichever you choose, you don’t know what they learn, but ask them how
they react to the revelation. However, if you have a glass, a basin, or an
oracle to read, you can catch a shadow or a mirror image of their revelation.
Ask them what you see.
On a miss, choose 1 anyway, but in the act, you lay yourself bare as well.
The MC chooses 1 against you, and asks you how you react in turn.
When you sink into the mud, roll. On any hit, you can’t be found, and any
trouble that comes, passes you by without touching you. You choose when
to emerge. On a 10+ hit, choose 1 of the following as well.
• You emerge healed of any wound, shock, resentment or grudge, with your
person and your dignity intact.
• You emerge in full summer.
• You can bring someone else into and out of the mud with you.
• You forget what’s come before, and emerge with your mind fresh and clear.
On a miss, any trouble that comes, finds you buried in the mud, unable to
escape without a friend’s help. You can bring someone else if you choose;
they’re trapped as well. Ask the MC what’s happening.
When you throw the bones, roll. On any hit, ask the MC questions; the MC
must answer them truthfully. On a 10+ hit, ask 3. On a 7–9 hit, ask 2. You
must make up your own questions, and there are no limits laid on them.
If the MC’s answer is later proven wrong, you may consider it an insult or
even a terrible shock. On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but then ask the MC what
goes wrong. Perhaps the simple act of asking will transform the answer.
29
֍
The Crowned Stag
֍
Y ou are the Crowned Stag. You’re fairy nobility: regal,

generous, self-involved, and radiant.
Note that while “stag” is a gendered word, gender is a game in fairyland, and
you can play it however suits you.
Your Name:
Choose a noble name, and make your family name include a reference to
the forest, the seasons, or the natural wilds.
Examples: Alinor Coldrill, Catherine Reed, Richard Springtree, Robert Alder.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: The lightning arc, thunder echoing
off the hills, the morning breeze, drumbeats, the driving storm, deep
pools, ripe cherries, the curling vine, antlers in velvet, antlers in bloody
rags, antlers of copper, antlers of silver.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Wide smile, big eyes, laugh lines,
long braids, elaborate braids, curling hair, sweet mouth, lean, curvy,
long legs, trim beard, long beard, full beard.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Tawny gold, burnished copper,
warm black, walnut black, red-brown, pine green, birch white, beech
gold, sea green, sea blue, violet, cherrywood brown.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Simple clothing, the plaid, silk
blouse, tight cut pants, linen shirt, linen gown, cotton shift, cotton
shirt, velvet vest, velvet corset, jewelry.
Your Place:
^^ Performer;  Planner;
^^ Ringmaster & host;  Worker;
^^ Always there, gorgeous and flirty.
30
Your Plays:
^^ Catch eyes with them
^^ Stand regal before them
^^ Step into the woods
^^ Summon your court
Your Trappings:
^^ A wagon changeably cozy and regal, pulled by a proud bull. In your
wagon is the best bed in the circus, by far.
^^ A servant, a silent elfin boggart called Tirophene.
^^ Sword and armor befitting, laid out in a figured chest, under the bed.
^^ A musical instrument of mortal make, contrary and unmastered.
^^ A mirror. Look in it and in your own face you’ll see your father’s face,
your mother’s face, your past, your future, what you’ve lost, what
you’ve kept, and/or what you’ll yet have.
Your Bindings:
^^ — and I dally on occasion and we’re easy in one another’s company. If
I confront them, put them off, waylay them, or stand regal before them,
they may consider it an insult. Who?
^^ I’ve treated —’s feelings too thoughtlessly before now. I can never
again open up to them, and if I catch eyes with them, I make myself
beholden to them, whatever they choose. Who?
Crowned Stag Plays

When you catch eyes with someone, and you mean it, roll. On any hit, they
have to choose: you fight each other, or you fall passionately into each
others’ arms. On a 10+ hit, they can choose one now, then change their
mind and choose the other in a little while instead, if they want to. On a
miss, they can still choose one if they want to, but if they want neither, they
can grin or scowl or look away instead.
31
When you stand regal before someone, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 3 of the
following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 2. If there are more people here than one,
decide whether your choices apply to one, some, or all of them.
• They must stop and take a step back from you.
• They bend a knee, reflexively.
• They may not speak, act, or depart until you give them leave.
• Invite them to come forward and address you. They must.
• Bid them welcome and to make free. Your hospitality now prevails here, for
them, above any other law and custom.
On a miss, they must stop and take a step back, but then they’re free to act
as they choose.
When you step into the woods, roll. You can bring friends with you, if you
invite them and they choose to come. On any hit, choose 1 of the following.
• You’re in wild orchards, where the apples and pears grow boozy and feral.
There’s a fast-moving little old ciderer.
• You’re in a place of comfort and leisure, with steaming hot pools and mossy
bowers under the swaying, whispering trees. There are night-singing birds.
• You’re in the dark woods, where the trees have turned cruel and treacherous
tracks lead. There’s danger.
• You’re at a “hunting lodge,” in fact a woodland palace of twenty rooms.
There’s a staff of elfin servants, fussy, disapproving, and eager to please.
• You’re at a place of high wild beauty, a wooded craig close to the stars, with
an ancient stone circle and a spring of water so pure and cold that you can
become drunk on it.
On a 10+ hit, in addition, look for it and you’ll find the royal road to the
court of your father, the King of the Forest, with white birches standing
honorguard. On a miss, you’re lost in the woods, and separated from your
companions. Ask the MC where you are.
When you summon your court, declare who you’re summoning and roll.
• Your bodyguard, 8 fearless stags, themselves royalty.
• A dozen of your courtiers, each more beautiful and gracious than the last.
• Your teachers and advisors, steadfast, loyal and wise.
• Your warrior elite: ten of wolf, ten of eagle, ten of walking blackthorn, and
ten of elfin skirmishers.
• Those of the other players’ characters whom you consider to be in your court.
On a 10+ hit, they answer your call at once. On a 7–9 hit, only one or two
of them appear now, with the rest prepared to come, if you still indeed
require them, at their best convenience. On a miss, the same as on a 7–9
hit, except that you’re beholden to all who come.
32
֍
The Feather-Cloak
֍
Y ou are the Feather-Cloak. You’re shifty kind, and a

bird: resourceful, cheerful, busy, graceful, and humble.
Your Name:
Choose a color and a short name, and combine them in either order.
Examples: Yellow Jo, Bob White, Sallie Blue, Periwinkle Kim.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Nests, bracken, sunbeams, mossy
stones, willow catkins, little running streams, pine cones, snow
storms, red berries, fog, branches clacking in the wind.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Bright eyes, dancing eyes, bushy
eyebrows, trilling laugh, two-tone hair, soft hair, downy beard, quick
body, compact body, spindly limbs, round face, sharp features.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Soft gray, golden brown, buttercup
yellow, sky blue, copper-flecked black, moss green, leaf brown,
glittering black, speckled black and white.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Long striped stockings, a velvet
hood, many pockets, brass buckles, a cob-web lace gown, a fine shirt
with ruffles at the neck, weather-worn rough coat, bright-colored linen
vest, drab clothes, neatly cut clothes, sweet-smelling clothes.
Your Place:
^^ Barker & caller;  Lookout;
^^ Aerialist & tumbler;  Provisioner;
^^ Always there with advice and gossip.
33
Your Plays:
^^ Make them blink
^^ Serve them tea and honeycakes
^^ Hide away
^^ Watch for your chance
Your Trappings:
^^ A small tidy wagon festooned with ivy, pulled by a gentle mare with a
little foal gamboling alongside.
^^ A changeable cloak of real and embroidered feathers, warm and
waterproof.
^^ Neat crates and bundles of useful things: buttons, buckles, ribbons,
needles and thread, candles, combs, wire, scissors, sharpening stones,
polish, paint, grease, and sweets.
^^ Teas, teacakes, teapots, cups, and saucers.
^^ A tiny golden crown: pin it to your cloak and you may go as a bird.
Your Bindings:
^^ I once beat — in a challenge. I can never again draw them out. Who?
^^ — sheltered me in a time of great danger. I can never put them off or
hide away from them. Who?
Feather-Cloak Plays
When you make someone blink, roll. On any hit, choose 1 of the following.
• They thought you were one place, but no, you’re someplace else.
• They thought they were ready, but no, you’ve caught them off guard.
• They thought they were paying attention, but no, their attention wandered.
• They thought they had something well in hand, but no, they’ve lost their grip
on it.
• For a second they thought they saw something startling, and it leaves them
uncertain. What?
• You really do something or they really see something startling, and it leaves
them astonied. What?
On a 10+ hit, however you decide to play it now, take +1 to your roll. On a
miss, ask the MC what goes wrong. They might have you choose 1 anyway,
but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps they’ve been onto you all along.
34
When you serve someone tea and honeycakes, roll. Your magic can help
them change their fate. On any hit, they may, as they wish, become invisible
until the next setting of the spheres, sun or moon. On a 10+ hit, choose 1
of the following that they may, if they wish, also receive.
• Comfort, calm, and courage.
• Good fortune and increase, up to and including a coming child.
• Progress toward summer.
• Insight into the weakness of their rival or enemy.
• Some favor of the one they name, and if their intended refuses, it’s an insult
to you, your magic, your tea, and your cakes, all.
On a miss, they choose 1 of the above to receive for themselves, but they do
not become invisible.
When you hide away, roll. On any hit, no one can find you, no matter how
carefully they search, and no trouble alights on you. You choose when to
emerge. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1 of the following, though.
• Someone carries you off by accident. Ask the MC where they’re taking you.
• The effort to keep so still chills you. Step toward winter.
• You’re sharing your hiding place with something small and nosy. Ask the
MC what or who.
• You forget what’s come before, and emerge with your mind befuddled.
On a miss, you hide between worlds, and when you emerge from your
hiding place, you’re no longer with the circus. Ask the MC where you are
now.
When you watch for your chance, roll. On any hit, choose 1 of the following
to tell the MC.
• At the precise moment that — happens, I do —.
• — happens just when I predicted it, and I’m already in motion. I do —.
• Eventually — happens, right? When it does, I do —.
• If — happens, I’m going to notice it or realize it at once. Does it? If it does,
I do —, but if it doesn’t, I do —.
On a 10+ hit, however you decide to play it next, take +1 to your roll. On a
but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps your very act of watching changes
what will happen.
35
֍
The Interloper
֍
Y ou are the Interloper. You’re a human being who’s

intruding into fairyland intentionally, in disguise, to steal fairy treasure.
You’ve joined the circus because it will provide you cover and bring you to
places where treasures abound.
I don’t know what it is that you seek, but you’ve certainly heard of such
things as a purse that never empties of coins, potions of true love or immor-
tality, coats of invisibility, rings of good luck, flying boots, harps that play
themselves and sing with beautiful maidens’ voices, swords that can carve
through armor or stone, and bullets that never miss their mark.
Your Name:
Choose a human name.
Your Free & Careful Imagery:
^^ Choose 1: Sky, field, cloud, sun, moon, wind.
^^ Choose 1: Jaw, eyes, hands, hair, face, lips.
^^ Choose 1: Blue, red, green, orange, brown, gray.
^^ Choose 1: Mask, shoes, boots, coat, clothing, gown, hat, vest, cloak,
hood, gloves, scarf.
^^ Choose 1: Mannish, womanish, androgynish, boyish, girlish,
childish, queerish, sexy, sexless, charming, forbidding, enticing,
unapproachable, —.
For each that you’ve chosen, customize it. Characterize it differently for
free and for careful.
Choose your pronouns for free and for careful as well.
Your Place:
^^ Novelties, trinkets, tickets & refreshments;
^^ Crew;
^^ Worker;
^^ Lookout;
^^ Always there, watching and listening quietly.
36
Your Plays:
^^ Pass yourself off to them as royalty incognito
^^ Touch them with iron
^^ Pocket something
^^ Take to your heels
Your Trappings:
^^ A corner in a friendly wagon where you can ride and sleep, curled up
in your blanket. You don’t need much.
^^ A human memory: a loved one’s face, a farm on a hillside, warm
evenings by firelight, a job in a town with neighbors and employer.
^^ Fairy poison you’ve dropped into your eyes. Weep, and you’ll wash it
out and return to mortal life.
^^ A key, a nail, or some other piece of cold iron. No fairy can bear its
touch, so it’ll betray you to any who see it.
Your Bindings:
^^ — knows what I am, but keeps confidence for their own reasons. I
can never confront them or pass myself off to them as royalty incognito.
Who?
^^ — is my honest friend, though they don’t know what I am. I can never
put them off, and if I ever touch them with iron they must choose to
die. Who?
Interloper Plays
When you pass yourself off to a fairy as royalty incognito, roll. On any hit,
they must defer to you without acknowledging you in any way. On a 7–9
hit, they may gossip about it afterward, but on a 10+ hit, they may not even
do that. On a miss, perhaps they defer to you as on a hit, or perhaps they
swear incognito allegiance to you and become your most loyal incognito
servant, and perhaps you’ll never know which.
You can pass yourself off to other mortals as well. Since they aren’t so
innately bound by fairy laws, they may choose to behave as fairies,
according to your roll, but they may also squint skeptically at you and
wonder what and who you really are.
37
When you touch a fairy with cold iron, roll. On any hit, choose 1 of the
following. If the fairy you touch is another player’s character, they choose,
not you.
• They will promise you anything you ask to be free of the iron’s touch. What
do you make them promise?
• They are so genuinely frightened of you that they immediately and truly
abandon their interests and concerns, flee, and come near you never again.
• You press the iron to them cruelly and they die. Other fairies, not
understanding that this is true death, might look for them to return
someday, but they never will.
On a 10+ hit, you can keep them quiet while all this goes on. On a 7–9 hit,
everyone nearby realizes that something’s wrong, and can act to investigate
or defend themselves. On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong, or should
a 7–9 hit go poorly for you, be prepared for the worst. You’ve stolen
uninvited into fairyland, and threatened a fairy with true death, and the
consequences might be severe.
Touching another mortal with iron has no consequence.
When you pocket something, name it and roll. On any hit, you have it,
unnoticed. On a 10+ hit, you have it profoundly, and its erstwhile owner’s
erstwhile claim to it is already fading from everyone’s minds. On a 7–9 hit,
it’s true that you’re holding it in your pocket, but it’s not true that you own
it, and neither it nor anyone else will believe that it belongs to you. On a
miss, it signals its owner somehow that it’s been taken or misplaced, though
it can’t reveal itself or finger you.
Think metaphorically too, mortal kind.
When you take to your heels, roll. On any hit, you flee to safety. On a 10+
hit, you reach a place of genuine security where you can regroup, gather
your thoughts, and decide on your next play. On a 7–9 hit, you’re out of
immediate danger, but not yet secure. Either way, ask the MC where you
are. On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong. Perhaps you’ll flee straight
into danger even worse than you left.
38
֍
The Lantern Jack
֍
Y ou are the Lantern Jack. You’re pisky kind:

enchanting, sprightly, full of fun and malice.
Your Name:
Choose a short name or a really long name.
Examples: Erzabettina the Firefly Whisp, Lune, Master Revellesto of the
Wire High, Tip, Zoff.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Heat lightning, twinkling stars,
ghost lights, the glowing wick after the candle’s out, struck sparks,
lightning bugs, mossy boles, fresh new shoots.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Long nose, lumpy nose, pert nose,
no nose, four arms instead of two, beetle wings under your jacket,
feelers, a crooked grin, a secret grin, wide eyes, kindly eyes, wild hair,
upstanding hair, curly hair, bald as an egg.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Pale green, watery blue, beetle
blue, iridescent black, iridescent purple, iridescent green, poison green,
don’t-eat-me yellow, back-off red.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Particolor clothing,
counterchanged clothing, motley clothing, harlequin clothing,
vagabonds’ rags, mummers’ rags, tatterdemalion rags, work clothes,
fancy clothes, parody-fancy clothes, outlandishly fancy clothes.
Your Place:
^^ Clown, juggler & tumbler;
^^ Novelties, trinkets, tickets & refreshments;
^^ Provisioner;
^^ Planner;
^^ Always there as a voice of reason.
39
Your Plays:
^^ Dare them to follow you
^^ Greet them with honest pleasure
^^ Trip it gaily
^^ Vanish
Your Trappings:
^^ A wagon more spacious than seems likely, pulled by a truly
gargantuan stag- or rhinoceros beetle.
^^ A minor infinity of silk scarves.
^^ A trunk overflowing with jugglers’ balls, torches, knifes, candles, jugs,
bunnies, slapsticks, sparklers, squibs, fans, whirligigs, rattles, whistles,
and some fat complacent old parakeets.
^^ A shillelagh to guard you, and who’s laughing now?
^^ Crates and bottomless barrels of unsavory foodstuffs. Turnip mead,
salt-brined cheese, lentil sausages spiced with punguents, Moxie.
^^ A dragon’s egg.
Your Bindings:
^^ — practices and performs with me as a tumbler. We can trip it gaily
together: I roll, and we take turns choosing. They can even trip it
gaily without me: they roll, using their roll for weathering the storm.
Anyway, who?
^^ I’ve led — into one misadventure too many. I can never again open up
to them or dare them to follow me. Who?
Lantern Jack Plays

When you greet someone with honest pleasure, roll. On a 10+ hit, any
grudge, grievance, or unfinished business between you vanishes, for real.
On a 7–9 hit, they choose: let unfinished business vanish, as for a 10+ hit,
or hold onto it. If they hold onto it, though, and bring it up again, they’re
insulting you. On a miss, you’re insulting them by pretending there’s no
unfinished business between you.
40
When you dare someone to follow you, if they do, roll. On any hit, choose 1
of the following.
• Ask them where their (choose 1) greed, lust, or ambition would take them.
You know a secret way there, and you take them there unchallenged.
• Ask them where their (choose 1) heart, dreams, or fate would take them.
• You lead them to wonderful treasure. Ask the MC what and where.
• You lead them to a trackless place and abandon them up to their knees in
cold muck-water.
• You lead them to the best seats in the circus, and later they’ll find that they
paid a premium to sit there.
• You lead them wherever you want to. Where?
On a 10+ hit, in addition, they’re beholden to you for serving so faithfully
as their guide. On a miss, you and they get lost together. Ask the MC where
you are now.
When you trip it gaily, roll. All present must stop to watch you. On any hit,
choose as many of the following as you like, in any order, repeating freely,
as quickly as you can. End with a finale.
• I leap to —. • I clamber up to —.
• I tumble to —. • I fall to —.
• I skip to —. • I dive to —.
• I roll to —. • I strut up to —.
• I flutter daintily to —. • I swoop to —.
• I seize hold of —. • I make a show of —.
• I produce — from the air or my pockets or nowhere.
• I slip — into my pocket or under my hat.
• … contorting myself fantastically all the while.
• … juggling — all the while.
On a 7–9 hit, after you’ve chosen at least 4 or 5, the MC can hold up a
finger: come to your finale now, or you’ll lose the crowd. On a miss, choose
anyway. The MC counts out a 1-2-3 1-2-3 measure, and when you miss your
beat, you misstep, and you end with a stumble instead of a finale.
When you vanish, roll. On a 10+ hit, you’ve gone. Tell the MC where you
reappear. On a 7–9 hit, you’re nearby, just invisible. Tell the MC what you
do. On a miss, you’re invisible except for your hat, your shoes, your ears, or
the tip of your nose (the MC’s choice which). You think you’re all invisible.
Tell the MC what you do.
41
֍
The Lostling
֍
Y ou are the Lostling. You’re a human being who once

upon a time wandered into fairyland, or once upon a time was stolen by
fairies and brought here. Now you barely remember the mortal earth. The
circus is your home.
I don’t know whether you want to return to your old life, your old
family and home. If you do, I don’t know whether you ever can.
Your Name:
Free & Careful Imagery:
^^ Choose 1: Shoes, boots, coat, clothing, gown, hat, vest, cloak, hood,
jacket, gloves, scarf.
Your Place:
^^ Performer;  Creative collaborator;
^^ Crew;  Problem solver;
^^ Always there with encouragement and insight.
Your Plays:
^^ See through them  Appeal to fairy law
^^ Touch them with iron  Sing of summer or winter
42
Your Trappings:
^^ A comfortable wagon, remarkable among fairy things for its human
touches: its shaped wooden doorhandles, the warmth of its colors, the
simple beauty of its trucks and wheels well cared for, the soft-brushed
coats and well-fed contentment of its two oxen, the chicken that rides
along on its ridge beam.
^^ Comfortable work clothing, a flashy costume, a subdued costume, and
well kept and well mended dress-up clothing. Also, stilts.
^^ Something of iron that you wear around your neck, by right, token of
who you are.
^^ Memories of the human world, not whole, snatches of song and
incomplete vignettes, that come to you in dreams and unbidden.
^^ A book where you keep your sketches, your journal, your notes and
memories.
Your Bindings:
^^ — has been traveling with me for a long time. We joined the circus
together. I can never put them off. Who?
^^ Normally I’m the one who sees through people, but — has seen
through me. I can never waylay them or see through them. Who?
Lostling Plays
When you see through someone, roll. On any hit, call a quick break in play
and talk them over with the MC and your fellow players. See if you can
collectively figure them out in symbolic or metaphoric terms: not only
who are they really are, but what do they represent, what do they mean in
the game. Take these insights back into play with you. On a 7–9 hit, they
realize that you’ve seen through them, and can react accordingly. On a 10+
hit, they don’t. On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong. Perhaps they’ve
drawn you in somehow instead.
43
not you.
a 7–9 hit go poorly for you, be prepared for the worst. You’ve threatened a
fairy with true death, and the consequences might be severe.
When you appeal to fairy law, roll. On any hit, fairyland itself judges in
your favor, and you choose 1 of the following.
• Whatever or whoever is threatening you, it or they may not physically harm
you, only affront, shock, startle, or dismay you.
• Whatever or whoever is constraining you, it or they must accept a gift or
tribute from you, then release you and let you pass.
• Whatever or whoever is endangering you, must offer you a bargain, a test,
or a trial to undertake, and may step only if you break or fail it.
On a 7–9 hit, though, you’re beholden to fairyland for its verdict. On a
but be prepared for the worst. Parhaps fairyland not only judges against
you, but takes your appeal as an insult in the first place.
Outside of fairyland, appealing to fairy law has no effect.
When you sing of summer or winter, roll. On a 10+ hit, the place where
you are, and all the players’ fairies in it, turn toward the season you sing of.
Remind the MC to reflect the season’s change in the NPCs here. On a 7–9
hit, the seasons don’t turn, but any players’ fairies who can hear your voice
do, and any NPCs who hear you also feel the warmth or the chill. On a
miss, some imperceptible warning shuts you up, you sing about something
frivolous instead, and you step toward careful. You may make this play at
most once per session.
44
֍
The Nightmare Horse
֍
Y ou’re no “kind” of fairy, you’re the Nightmare Horse,

unique and yourself: beguiler, bewitcher, dweller in night sky and deep water.
Your Name:
You don’t have a name. You are the Nightmare Horse.
Choose a title that you’ve adopted for others’ convenience.
Examples: Lord Blue, Her Serene Majesty, Chef, Captain.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Still water, the drowned moon,
the crescent moon, rushing falls, salt spray, a thunderstorm, a wild
orchard, hyacinths, irises, a chill wind, a twisting horn.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Long hair, striking face, sharp
teeth, shaggy hair, sleek hair, long legs, shapely legs, long neck, tossing
head, mesmerizing eyes, beauty, poise, grace, control.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Glossy black, velvet black, iron
black, salt-and-pepper, russet, spruce blue, midnight blue, twilight
blue, sea green, moss green, bone pale, smoky gray.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Rich clothing, elegant clothing,
rare jewels, silk mask, silk robes, understated clothing, tasteful
clothing, high boots, brass-soled shoes, bare feet.
Your Place:
^^ Star;  Problem solver;
^^ Guide, opener & closer of doors;  Cook;
^^ Always there as a dangerous friend.
Your Plays:
^^ Drag them under  Change your form & seeming
^^ Take their breath away  Disarm the situation
45
Your Trappings:
^^ A glamorous wagon, pulled by dancing matched geldings.
^^ A magical cabinet: reach into it and it will deliver an outfit
marvelously well-suited to the occasion at hand.
^^ A sharp sword of mortal bronze, stolen from some drowned warrior of
ages past.
^^ A silver necklace, or bridle, but who dares place it around your neck?
^^ A traveling kitchen, tidy and spare, with labeled jars of delicate spices
and many fresh, novel things.
^^ A polished lake stone, always icy cold, that remembers the secrets of
past worlds.
Your Bindings:
^^ I’ve fallen in love with —, though naturally I keep the fact from
myself. I can never put them off. Who?
^^ I caught — opening a door they had no business opening. I can never
again draw them out, nor disarm any situation they’re a part of. Who?
Nightmare Horse Plays

When you drag someone under, roll. On any hit, choose 1 of the following.
• You seize physical hold of them and drown them. Choose this only if you’re
near water, and in a position to put your hands bodily on them. They can’t
stop you.
• They forget utterly who they are.
• Their thoughts fill with paranoid, undeniable, commanding nonsense,
creating enemies and dangers from air.
• They fall into a deep sleep, troubled by nightmares, unable to force
themselves awake again.
• They feel a terrible weight pressing on them, a terrible cold filling their
mouth and nose, a terrible silence engulfing them and they can’t seem to get
free.
On a 10+ hit, you can choose to release and spare them at any time. On
a 7–9 hit, though, you can’t, and they must somehow find their own way
back. On a miss, they realize the danger they’re in and they’re able to get
away, if they flee right now.
46
When you take someone’s breath away, roll. On any hit, your eyes meet and
they catch their breath. They can’t proceed with what they were doing until
they’ve answered you. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following to say, and
you’re telling them the truth. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.
• At this moment, for me the moon rises and sets in your eyes. Will you close
them against me?
• At this moment, at any other soul’s approach but yours, I would flee. Will
you come closer?
• At this moment, no one but you may touch me in safety. Will you?
• At this moment, I will bear no one on my back but you. Will you ride me?
• At this moment, I’m wearing my silver necklace, and if you place your hand
on it, I’m yours. Will you?
• This moment is fleeting and there is no other like it. Another instant and I
may never be yours. Will you come to my arms?
On a miss, they take your breath away instead, and choose 1 against you,
if they like, or else they may dismiss you, which you may take as a cruel
insult.
When you change your form & seeming, roll. On any hit, you take the form
of a beautiful person; a beautiful horse, with or without a horn; or your
true form, the Nightmare Horse, terrible, bloody-fanged and -hooved,
drenched in icy water. You remain in this form until you change it again.
On a 10+ hit, you can also change any one element of your summer
& winter, if you want to. On a miss, choose: take your true form, the
Nightmare Horse, or else take the form of your choice and step at once to
full winter.
When you disarm a situation, first disarm yourself, and then roll. On a
10+ hit, everyone else present must disarm themselves as well. On a 7–9
hit, everyone else present must individually choose: disarm themselves, or
else insult you and everyone else here and declare themselves enemy to all.
On a miss, after a moment’s hesitation you take your arms back up again.
47
֍
The Seeker
֍
Y ou are the Seeker. You’re a human being who’s come

boldly into fairyland, to win back something that the fairies stole from
you. You’ve joined the circus because you think that it will bring you, in its
course, to the thing that was stolen.
I don’t know what it is that you seek, but it could certainly be your
baby brother or sister, your own child, your true love, your crown, your fate,
or your family’s good fortune. You should decide what it is, now or soon.
Your Name:
Free & Careful Imagery:
^^ Choose 1: Shoes, boots, coat, clothing, gown, hat, vest, cloak, hood,
jacket, gloves, scarf.
Your Place:
^^ Performer;  Planner;
^^ Crew;  Worker;
^^ Always there, patient, scowling, eager to be further on the road.
Your Plays:
^^ Declare your wrong to them  Trust yourself to fate
^^ Touch them with iron  Turn your hand to it
48
Your Trappings:
^^ A cart you inherited somehow from its previous owner, small,
splintery, drafty in the wind, and the pissy little donkey that pulls it.
^^ Unmistakeable human clothing: fur and leather, which fairies rarely
use; a big oilcloth coat, where fairies rarely mind the rain.
^^ A token of what the fairies stole from you. Examine it and it’ll point
the way forward. You followed it here to fairyland and to the circus,
and now you’re following it on.
^^ A knife of cold iron. No fairy can bear its touch.
Your Bindings:
^^ — met me first when I stepped into fairyland, and recognized the
justice of my claim. I can never put them off, waylay them, or touch
them with iron. Who?
^^ — is the most amazingly beautiful person I’ve ever seen, and they
make me blush and babble. I can never confront them or size them up.
Who?
Seeker Plays
When you declare your wrong to someone, roll. On any hit, they must stop
and hear you out. On a 7–9 hit, they are moved by the injustice you’ve
suffered, and may, if they choose, consider themselves to be insulted on
your behalf. On a 10+ hit, they must. On a miss, perhaps they hear you
out, but they don’t have to, and they’re indifferent: if fairies stole something
from you, well, it’s probably because they wanted it for some reason.
If you haven’t already decided what the fairies stole from you, decide before
you make this play.
49
not you.
a 7–9 hit go poorly for you, be prepared for the worst. You’ve trespassed
brashly into fairyland, and threatened a fairy with true death, and the
consequences might be severe.
When you trust yourself to fate, let go of your instincts and roll. On any
hit, your fate, in good luck’s disguise, will: lead you through, lead you on,
lead you back, turn your enemy aside, reveal your enemy’s weakness, put
your enemy in your power, bring a friend to your side, open a door for you,
or put a tool in your hand, in any combination. Ask the MC what happens
and where you are now. On a 7–9 hit, though, your fate or luck includes
some cost, some loss, some injury. Ask the MC what it is. On a miss, you
should have trusted your own will, not chance. Ask the MC how far you
fall, and where to, and it’s up to you to recover yourself.
When you turn your hand to a task or endeavor, roll. On any hit, you
accomplish it: you have a patience born of deep impatience, a cool and
artful surety born of deep panic, and the true magic of the justice of
your cause. On a 10+ hit, furthermore, you add to the accomplishment a
distinct human quality, a liveliness, inventiveness, or passion that fairies
cannot duplicate or ignore. On a miss, no one could deny your courage
or willingness, but now you cannot accomplish it without help, and you
cannot abandon it undone. You need a friend to draw you out or to help
you finish.
50
֍
The Stick Figure
֍
Y ou are the Stick Figure. You’re a made thing given life

and animation by magic: curious, naive, foolish and self-aware.
Your Name:
Choose a made up name that someone else once gave you.
Examples: Cobbles, Grampy Pillbutton, The Teapot Girl, Moot.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Water wheel, bellows, oil lamp,
teakettle, grinding stone, sled runners, hinges, leaf spring, coil spring,
pocketwatch, smoldering brazier, bone ribbing, stays, turnbuckles,
clasps, cranks, wicker withes, paste, daub, marbles, mannikin,
dressmaker’s form, knotted string, ribbons.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Broad smile, painted lips,
mirror eyes, gemstone eyes, painted eyes, pearl eyes, glass lens eyes,
mismatched limbs, visible construction, fake face, elegant mask,
carefully painted mask, crude mask, doll-like face, porcelain hands,
wicker hands, mitten hands, hewn body, lumpy body, powerful body,
turnip head.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Tin gray, bronze, copper, plaster
white, inky black, oil black, garish tempera paint primaries, straw
yellow, willow green, walnut black, oak tawny, canvas white, muslin
brown.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Mismatched clothing, castoff
clothing, an old costume, one boot and one shoe, a ratty scarf, a pretty
dress, a borrowed coat from you forget who, wooden shoes, felt mitts,
a ragpatch cape, a battered top hat, a felt hood, eyeglasses with a
broken lens, a straw hat with a hole chewed out of it.
51
Your Place:
^^ Clown;  Worker;
^^ Fortune teller;  Problem solver;
^^ Always there, trying to fit in.
Your Plays:
^^ Blurt out to them what you think is going on
^^ Express yourself to them in capering antics
^^ Fall apart
^^ Get to work
Your Trappings:
^^ A comfortable place in someone else’s wagon: a crate, a trunk, maybe
just a hook on a post to hang yourself up on.
^^ A friendly yellow jacket who makes her nest in your elbow.
^^ A birch branch broom, bold and steadfast, an excellent listener and a
fine dancer.
^^ An assortment of parts: spare, castoff, scavenged, kept. They’re not as
fine as your own but they’ll serve in a pinch.
^^ A strong chestplate, a thick skull cap, and heavy solid fists that you
can attach at need in place of your hands.
Your Bindings:
^^ — knows where I came from or who made me, but won’t tell me. If
I blurt out to them what I think is going on, express myself to them
in capering antics, or choose an option that affects them when I get
to work, they can freely ignore me, no matter what I roll or what I
choose. Who?
^^ I’ve taken — to be my especial role model, following them around and
trying to match their style and aplomb. I can never confront them or
waylay them. [Note that you can change your role model whenever you
step toward summer or winter.] Who?
52
Stick Figure Plays
When you blurt out to someone what you think is going on, roll. On a 10+
hit, if they know better, they have to reveal to you where you’re right and
where you’re wrong, either by answering outright or else by revealing it in
their body language, accidental gestures, and tells. On a 7–9 hit, they only
have to reveal whether you’re right or wrong, or broadly right or broadly
wrong. On a miss, they can still choose to reveal whether you’re right or
wrong, but if they do, you’re beholden to them. They can also decide that
you’ve insulted them by being too blunt, too tacky, too indiscreet, too right,
or too wrong.
When you express yourself to someone in capering antics, roll. You can do
impossible things with your joints and other body parts and you command
their attention. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a 7–9 hit,
choose 1. On any hit, briefly describe your antics, and…
• It’s surprisingly beautiful. • It’s surprisingly poignant.
• It’s surprisingly sad. • It’s surprisingly dramatic.
• It’s surprisingly funny. • It’s surprisingly frightening.
• It’s surprisingly graceful. • It’s surprisingly unpleasant.
• It reveals that I —. • It reminds you of —.
Ask the MC and/or the other players how they respond. On a miss, choose
1, but ask the MC and/or the other players who notices, and who doesn’t
notice.
When you fall apart, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 3 of the following. On a
7–9 hit, choose 2.
• You burst into tears. • Your arms fall off.
• You lose your head. • You collapse into a heap.
• You lose your voice. • You lose your feet.
• You lose your senses. • You spill your guts.
• You shriek and bellow. • You break and run.
On any hit, no enemy or circumstance can do any worse to you. Wait until
it’s over and then pull yourself together again. On a miss, choose 3, and
some of the others happen as well, you can’t tell and don’t know which. You
can’t recover by yourself, you’ll need a friend who can draw you out to help
you pick up the pieces.
53
When you get to work, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a
• No matter how long or how hard you work, you never tire.
• You make it into a dance and a song that gets stuck in everyone’s head.
• You never complain, not even once, not even when — messes up the work
you’ve done so far and you have to redo it.
• People can’t help but joining in. Name a person or two who really can’t help
it, then ask if anyone else joins in too.
• Your work is so exacting and careful that, though it will be perfect, you’ll
never finish it, not if you work a hundred years.
• No matter who else joins in, you work faster, better, and more cheerfully
than they do.
On a miss, choose 1, and in addition, you can’t stop working even after the
work is done. To stop, you’ll need a friend to draw you out.
54
֍
The Troll
֍
Y ou are the Troll. You’re stone troll kind: powerful,

undignified, dangerous and patient.
Your Name:
Choose a common or old-fashioned name and a gruesome or comical
image and connect them together.
Examples: Bonestew Annie, Isabella the Toad, Boiled Bald Pol, Umbrella
Richard
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Tree stump, fallen tree, jutting
stone, an icy run, a stinking underhang, porcupine, bear, walrus, boar.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Craggy face, smashed face,
crooked face, bestial face, smoldering eyes, sunken eyes, wry smile,
surprising grace, subtle beauty.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Smoke gray, pea green, brown,
chestnut, copper green, gall green, iron black, golden brown.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Sturdy clothing, canvas apron,
nailed boots, shawl, shaggy coat, unfortunate hat, impeccable clothing,
stained clothing, mismatched clothing, garish clothing.
Your Place:
^^ Performer;  Worker;
^^ Spectacle;  Problem solver;
^^ Always there to lend a hand.
55
Your Plays:
^^ Break them  Hunker down
^^ Tower over them  Pick through the leavings
Your Trappings:
^^ A jaunty, colorful roofed cart, pulled by a big old angry goat.
^^ A stone hammer as old as the living world.
^^ A helmet made for someone whose head was smaller than yours.
^^ Any number of little songbirds who perch on your shoulders and eat
seeds from your fingers.
^^ A crooked bow and splintery arrows, with which you never miss.
^^ A glass bottle in which is caught the blowing winter gale.
Your Bindings:
^^ I once took hold of — in a rage, and threw them so high into the air
that they like to cracked their head on the moon. I can never again
open up to them or draw them out. Who?
^^ — once out-ate, out-drank, out-sang, out-worked, or out-farted me.
(They cheated, but I don’t know it.) I can never break them or tower
over them. Who?
Troll Plays
When you break someone, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 1:
• You break them bodily into pieces.
• You throw them bodily out of this world into another.
• You pound them bodily into the earth.
• You cow them so utterly that you change them bodily into something meek
and retiring, perhaps yes a cow, perhaps a mole, a rabbit, a skittish little
quail, a big-eyed frightened gasping fish.
On a 7–9 hit, you merely wound, crush, and thoroughly dismay them. On a
but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps you’ll find that they have a core of
unbreakable strength after all.
56
When you tower over someone, roll. On any hit, choose 1:
• No harm or danger can reach them, except through you.
• No friend or ally can come to their aid, except through you.
On a 10+ hit, you so tower over them that you are free to act without any
risk of losing them or leaving them unguarded. On a 7–9 hit, you must
keep one eye on them whatever you do, so take -1 to any rolls you make
while you are towering over them. On a miss, ask the MC what goes wrong.
They might have you choose 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.
Perhaps you’re missing something you should have caught.
When you hunker down, roll. On any hit, you can shrug off any blows that
should land upon you. On a 10+ hit, shrug off as many as 3 solid blows
before you suffer the consequences of the next. On a 7–9, shrug off as many
as 2. On a miss, you become partly stone, and while you can shrug off as
many blows as come, you’ll need a friend to draw you out again.
When you pick through the leavings, roll. On any hit, you find something
interesting. Ask the MC what it is. On a 10+ hit, it’s treasure. On a 7–9 hit,
it’s a clue, a curiosity, or something that’s still perfectly delicious, you don’t
know why they didn’t finish this. On a miss, you lose something of your
own here instead. Tell the MC to decide what, and to let you know when
you notice that it’s missing.
57
֍
The Winding Rose
֍
Y ou are the Winding Rose. You’re flora kind: tough,

beautiful, temperamental, with no patience for fools.
Your Name:
Choose the name of a bird, a flower, a tree, and/or something in the sky,
and combine them.
Examples: Lilygull, Moonburr, Willowcloud, Chickadee Rose
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: The racing moon, a brier bramble,
wildflowers in a field, a track through the woods, twilight, dawn.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Radiant beauty, crooked smile,
parted lips, shining eyes, youthful beauty, ripe beauty, tangled hair,
short hair.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Rose red, electric blue, spring
green, yellow, copper, gold, nut brown, blush rose.
^^ Choose 1 for summer & 1 for winter: Sprightly clothing, cocked hat,
short skirts, bare feet, kickass boots, whimsical clothing, feathers,
flowers, a studded jacket or vest.
Your Place:
^^ Performer;  Worker;
^^ Barker & caller;  Problem solver;
^^ Always there with a smile and a cutting line.
Your Plays:
^^ Cut them quick  Twine danger around
^^ Lay your hand on them  Withdraw behind thorns
58
Your Trappings:
^^ A bed in someone’s wagon, soft, warm, and private.
^^ A sharp, useful, plain little knife.
^^ A fine sword, named, stashed thoughtlessly somewhere.
^^ Music and wildflower perfume wherever you walk.
^^ Tokens of love and memory, your own and others’.
^^ A sea shell in which speaks the voice of the moon.
Your Bindings:
^^ — has fallen in love with me, for real. I can never confront them or lay
my hand on them. Who?
^^ — has guessed the secret I keep so safe. (They didn’t tell me, and even
I don’t know what it is.) But I can never again confront them or waylay
them. Who?
Winding Rose Plays

When you cut someone quick, roll. On any hit, you cut them deep,
wounding and dismaying them. On a 10+ hit, choose 1 of the following as
well.
• They don’t realize until later that you’ve cut them so.
• They must suffer your cut in silence, without melodrama or display.
• Though you’ve cut them deep, they must suffer it as their due. If they offer
any recrimination, grudge, or answer, you may consider it an insult.
On a miss, they catch your hand or warn you off before your cut lands.
When you lay your hand on someone, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the
following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.
• They will go with you where you lead.
• They forget what they were thinking about before.
• Their heart races, their breath comes ragged, and their head swims.
• They cannot remove your hand themself, but must wait for you do remove
it.
• They trust you with what comes next, even after you’ve removed your hand,
until you give them reason not to.
On a miss, choose 1 anyway, but you are beholden to them.
59
When you twine danger around, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the
following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.
• You arrest the danger here, with you. It can’t get past you.
• You suffer no injury or misfortune from the danger yourself.
• You make yourself, in some measure, dangerous. Ask the MC what your
next play might be, and if you choose to make that play, roll it at +3.
anyway, but be prepared for the worst. You have taken the danger into your
very arms, and perhaps it will not go well for you.
When you withdraw behind thorns, roll. On any hit, any enemy or danger
who tries to reach you is torn, wounded, and dismayed by the deadly
tangle of thorns protecting you. On a 10+ hit, only three or more enemies
working together can overcome them, suffering the loss of two of their
number. On a 7–9 hit, only two or more enemies can, suffering the loss of
one. On a miss, you’re safe from enemies, but you’re trapped behind your
thorns, and you’ll need a friend who’ll brave them to draw you out.
60
֍
An Example Character:
Harebrake, the Boondoggle Hob
֍
“I ’m Harebrake the Goblin, the Boondoggle Hob. Being

goblin kind I’m strong, wry, grand and uncouth.
“In summer you can see me hopping around on high-heeled berry-red
boots, all knees and elbows, with my crooked nose sticking out from under
shaggy pumpkin-brown hair. You can always hear me whistling and it
sounds like peep-wit! Peep-wit! like spring peepers. When you look at me
this way, I seem mannish, when you look at me that way, I seem womanish,
and I never correct anybody about my pronouns.
“I’m the ringmaster of the circus; also a performer, the cook, and a
heel-dragger. I’m always there to comment upon others’ work. I might play
a person by distracting them with tricks and visions, or by provoking them.
I might play a situation by making myself something else, or by shrugging
everything off.
“I live in my wagon, big and rumbling, painted berry-red like my boots,
pulled by a pair of surly bull-pigs. You can smell me cooking in there, and it
always smells great, I can somehow make delicious stew out of scraps and
whatever we find. I also have ‘books of children’s stories, homey recipes,
jovial songs, and accounts of murder,’ and to read them I put on thick, thick
glasses — even though you can’t see my eyes through my hair.
“One of you finds yourself always on my bad side, and you never know
why. Who?” (Jill Cowdery: “How about me?”) “Sure! I should try to confront
you every session, so that’s what I’ll do.
“On the other hand, I’ve taken an absolutely unaccountable liking to
someone else. Who’ll volunteer?” (“I will,” Timothy Bones says.) “Okay! I
should try to draw you out every session too.”
61
֍
Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand
֍
“ I ’m Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand. You can call

me “Old Bones,” too. I’m witchy kind: practical, private, insightful, and
calculating.
“In summer I’m vine-twisted wood, I’m shining eyes, I’m deep red and
black, I’m a floppy hat, I’m mannish and queerish, I’m he / him.
“In the circus, my place is fortune teller, conjurer, planner, and problem
solver. I’m always there with a secret to tell. I might play a person by blind-
folding them or laying them bare. I might play a situation by sinking into
the mud or throwing the bones, my namesake.
“My wagon is a creaking weather-warped cart, pulled by a cheerful old
ox. I’ve got a number of other interesting things, let’s see: birch-bark books
written with words stolen from the creating of the world, for instance. A
glowing hot coal that will never cool. Also this magical golden thimble.
Interesting things.
“For bindings: I once turned blank into a little bird, put you in a cage,
and let my cat stare at you with its yellow eyes. Anybody?” (“Oh it was me,”
says Tip the Lantern Jack, “and you had good reasons.”) “Aha. Well, I can
never again waylay you or blindfold you.
“I also once confided my heart’s true love and longing to blank.” (Jill
Cowdery: “Me? How about me?”) “I can see it. I can never put you off.”
62
֍
Jill Cowdrey, the Interloper
֍
“M y character’s Jill Cowdrey, the Interloper. She’s

a human being who’s intruding into fairyland in disguise to steal fairy
treasure. She’s joined the circus because it will give her cover. She’s
disguised as an elf princess traveling incognito.
“She’s free and careful instead of summer and winter. When she’s free,
her imagery is a crescent moon, pretty eyes, a cool periwinkle blue, a bird’s
mask, womanish. Her pronouns are she / her.
“Her place in the circus is novelties, trinkets, tickets and refreshments,
so I guess she’s not really a performer, she does those other things. Crew
too. Out of the spotlight. Also she’s a worker, a lookout, and always there,
watching and listening quietly. Her playbook plays are to pass herself off as
royalty incognito, to touch someone with iron, to pocket something, and to
take to her heels.
“She doesn’t have her own wagon, she has a corner in a friendly wagon
where she can ride and sleep. I guess she’s pretending to be a princess who’s
roughing it.” (Tip, with a wink: “You can live in my wagon if you want, your
highness.”) “Cool, she will, she’s pretty private though.
“She has some stuff that doesn’t really affect anyone else… Oh! She has
an old iron nail hidden in her clothing, close to her skin. Taped to her skin.
It’ll give her away because it’s iron and real fairies can’t bear the touch of it.
“One of you knows who Jill really is, but keeps confidence for your own
reasons. Who?” (“Me!” says the Teapot Girl. “I can tell you’re faking because so
am I!”) “Jill can never confront you or pass herself off to her.
“One of you is Jill’s honest friend, though you don’t know who she
really is. Who?” (Timothy Bones: “I am.”) “That’s good, she needs you for a
friend. She can never put him off, and if she ever touches him with her iron
nail, he must choose to die.”
63
֍
Tip, the Lantern Jack
֍
“I ’m Tip the Lantern Jack. I’m pisky kind: enchanting,

sprightly, full of fun and malice.
“For me summer is heat lightning, a crooked grin, iridescent purple,
harlequin clothing — absolutely skin-tight, iridescent purple and white
diamonds. I’m androgynish and sexy, in summer my pronouns are she / her
or they / them, I don’t mind.
“I’m a clown, juggler and tumbler; novelties, trinkets, tickets and
refreshments; provisioner; and planner. I’m always there as a voice of
reason. I play people by daring them to follow me or by greeting them with
honest pleasure. I play situations by tripping it gaily or by vanishing.
“My wagon is more spacious than seems likely, pulled by a truly gar-
gantuan stag beetle. It’s the size of a VW bug, ha ha. My wagon has like
three or four rooms in it, maybe five, it’s just a wagon on the outside but it’s
like a resort house on the inside. I have all kinds of juggler’s things, spar-
klers, ribbons, razor-sharp knives, a ‘minor infinity’ of silk scarves. I also
have crates and barrels of truly disgusting foods, so it’s good that I’m the
provisioner, isn’t it!
“One of you practices and performs with me as a tumbler, who?”
(Harebrake the Goblin says, “I’m a very good tumbler, but I think our moods
might be a little different…”) (“Oh me! Me!” says the Teapot Girl.) “The
Teapot Girl it is. We can trip it gaily together, and you can even trip it gaily
without me.
I’ve led one of you into one misadventure too many, who?” (“Now that’s
me for sure,” says Harebrake.) “So I can never again open up to you or dare
you to follow me. I’m sure you wouldn’t listen to me if I tried.”
64
֍
The Teapot Girl, the Stick Figure
֍
“M y name is the Teapot Girl. My playbook is the

Stick Figure. I’m a made thing given life and animation by magic. I’m
curious, naive, foolish and self-aware.
“My summer imagery is a teakettle (that’s my head), painted eyes and
mouth, it says ‘plaster white’ but I’m going with enamel white, a white
enamel teapot with a painted face. Eyeglasses with a broken lens. My
painted face is girlish, and people call me ‘the Teapot Girl,’ so in summer
my pronouns are she / her.
“My place is: clown, fortune teller, worker, problem solver, and always
there, trying to fit in. My Stick Figure plays are: blurt out to them what I
think is going on; express myself to them in capering antics; fall apart; and
get to work.
“I don’t have a wagon, I have a comfortable place in someone else’s, an
old steamer trunk I can fold myself up and sleep in. Timothy Bones, can I
keep my trunk in your wagon?” (Timothy Bones: “Of course!”) “Thanks.
“My other trappings are a birch branch broom, bold and steadfast,
an excellent listener and a fine dancer. It’s part of my act, dancing with a
broom, but also I talk to it a lot when nobody’s around. Also I have spare
parts and optional parts I can swap in and out. There’s a friendly yellow
jacket who makes her nest in one of my spare elbows.
“My bindings are: One of you knows where I came from or who made
me, but won’t tell me. Who?” (“I do know those things, and no, I won’t tell
you,” says Timothy Bones.) “True! Several of my plays, when I make them,
he can just ignore me if he wants to.
“I’ve taken one of you to be my especial role model, Jill, I hope you’ll
volunteer?” (“Of course I will,” Jill Cowdery says.) “It’s because I know who
she really is and she’s passing herself off so well. I follow her around and try
to match her style. I can never confront her or waylay her, but I might put
her in danger or accidentally give her away!”
65
Chapter 2:
Plays & Consequences
Rules
^^ Generally, you say what your character says, does, thinks, and intends,
and the Mistress of Ceremonies says where you are and what’s
happening there. When you want to get to the bottom of something,
change what’s happening, or take control for a moment, you do it by
making a play.
^^ You can make all of the obvious plays, and you can make your own
playbook’s plays.
^^ Always choose a play that makes sense to you, given the circumstances
and your own goals and interests.
^^ Announce your play by name.
^^ Follow the procedure in the play precisely. When you roll, add or
subtract your modifier for that play in your playbook. A sum of 10+ is
the strongest play; a sum of 7–9 is a strong play; and a sum of 6 or less
means you’ve missed your play.
^^ You choose your play and make your roll. The play tells you what the
outcome and consequences are.
^^ In addition to the direct consequences listed in your plays, there are
both short-term consequences that the Mistress of Ceremonies can
add to your play, at their option, and long-term consequences that
your play might invoke: stepping toward summer or winter, violence,
insults, favors, and love.
66
֍
Making Your Plays
֍
I nstead of playing out on a playing field, on a board, or in

hands of cards, Under Hollow Hills plays out in the conversation you have
with your fellow players and MC.
Generally:
You freely say what your character says, does, thinks, and intends.
You answer anybody’s questions on your character’s behalf. You freely ask
questions about anything that catches your curiosity.
The Mistress of Ceremonies says where you are, who else is there, and
what they’re doing. They answer your questions about what it’s like and
what’s happening.
You take casual turns with each other, the way you would in any
conversation: sometimes interrupting, sometimes going around the circle,
sometimes talking over each other then backing up to make right, always
trying to be thoughtful with each other but sometimes getting carried away
with your own enthusiasm.
Your plays introduce limits and structure into the casual conversation
of play. They’re rules you can introduce and follow whenever you want that
let you change how the conversation’s going.
The vocabulary is:
What’s your best play here?
How are you going to play this?
Are you going to play it safe or go for it?
How do you want to play them?
Are you just talking, or are you going to make a play for it?
You should expect the Mistress of Ceremonies to ask you questions
like these often.
There are two ways you can think about your plays, equally true:
When you want to expand the conversation, change its direction or
focus, or take control of it for a moment, you do it by making a play.
67
When you want to take action to figure out what’s going on, react
forcefully to something, affect what’s happening, find out what someone
else is thinking or planning, change what they’re doing, or take control of a
situation, you do it by making a play.
You can make obvious plays, and you can make your own playbook’s
plays. Each playbook has its own set of four unique plays. You usually can’t
make anybody else’s playbook plays, only your own.
Always choose a play that makes sense to you, given the circumstances
and your own goals and interests. Sometimes it’ll be obvious, and some-
times it’ll be a stretch, but as long as it makes sense to you, everybody else
should go along with it. They might ask you how your play makes sense,
and you should answer as best you can, but ultimately you don’t have to
justify it or convince them.
To make a play, announce it by name and pick up two dice. Follow the
procedure in the play precisely. It’ll call for you to roll the dice, make deci-
sions and judgments, and/or ask the Mistress of Ceremonies or another
player to make decisions and judgments too. Everyone can read along with
you, or you can step through the play yourself.
Add your two dice together, then add or subtract your roll for that play
in your playbook. The play’s outcome always depends on your total roll.
Rolling 10 or higher gives you the strongest play: the best possible outcome
or the best possible choices. Rolling 7–9 gives you a strong play: good
outcome or good choices. Rolling 6 or less means that you’ve misplayed or
you’ve missed your play. The play might tell you precisely what happens on
a miss, or it might just tell you to ask the Mistress of Ceremonies what goes
wrong.
MC, make sure to bring a couple of copies of the Obvious Plays sheet
to the game with you. Put them out on the table so that everyone can refer
to them when they need to.
68
֍
The Obvious Plays
֍
T hey’re called “obvious” plays because they’re plays that

anyone can make. No one needs unique skills to confront someone else, no
one needs an uncanny nature to open up to someone, no one needs magical
powers to weather a storm. They might also be called “standard” plays,
“basic” plays, or “universal” plays.
There are obvious ways to play a person, and obvious ways to play a
situation that you don’t understand or that is getting out of your control.
The obvious ways you can play a person are to:
^^ Confront them;
^^ Draw them out;
^^ Open up to them;
^^ Put them off;
^^ Size them up; or
^^ Waylay them.
The obvious ways you can play a situation are to:
^^ Call for a line;
^^ Sniff the wind;
^^ Use your trappings; or
^^ Weather the storm.
If you don’t like the way things are going, remember that you can
always play it by calling for a line or weathering the storm.
69
Confront Someone
When you confront someone, roll. On any hit, you interrupt them and
they can’t proceed without dealing with you. On a 10+ hit, they have to
choose whether to back down and give you your way, or defy you and force
your hand. On a 7–9 hit, if they don’t want to back down or force your
hand, they can try to prevaricate, mollify you, explain, bargain, or justify
themselves instead. On a miss, ask the MC or the other player what goes
wrong. Perhaps you’ve tipped your hand.
Examples:
^^ Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob seeks out Jill Cowdery the Interloper,
for no reason but to pick a fight with her. Let’s say that she’s at work,
tending the circus animals. (“My gargantuan stag beetle,” says Tip the
Lantern Jack.)
“I’m confronting you,” Harebrake says, “but I’m just making up some
complaint. ‘You spoil that beetle, don’t feed it so much.’” Harebrake rolls: a
9, plus their +1 to the roll, for a total of 10. “You have to choose whether to
back down and give me my way, or defy me. Which do you choose?”
Jill laughs. “Oh, she’ll defy you for sure. She just stares you down, as
though she really were fairy royalty and you don’t intimidate her at all.
She’s forcing your hand. What have you got?”
^^ The circus is performing at the River Queen’s winter palace, here to

celebrate the Breaking of the Ice and the end of winter. The Wolf King of
Winter is also here as the River Queen’s guest, with his personal guard of
menacing young friends. One of these has been stalking and watching the
circus, putting them all on edge, and now she’s cornered the Teapot Girl.
“How do you want to play it?” says the MC.
“I’m tired of this!” she says. “I’m just going to snap. My play is to con-
front her. ‘Bad! Dog!’” But she rolls a miss, a 6 on the dice, minus her -1 to
the roll, for a total of 5. “Oh no. What goes wrong?”
“Well, you tell me. How do you tip your hand?”
“That’s easy. I’m afraid of her! My voice is shaking, my hands too. I
tried to shout ‘bad dog,’ but it came out as a little squeak. I can’t muster
anything but terror! What’s she going to do?”
70
Draw Someone Out
When you draw someone out, roll. On any hit, you seize their attention and
they open up to you. On a 10+ hit, ask them 2 of the following; they must
answer honestly. On a 7–9 hit, ask 1.
• What are you considering?
• Where are you open to me, where are you vulnerable, and where are you
guarded?
• What are you forgetting, ignoring, or keeping from yourself?
• What do you hope I’ll do?
• What are you afraid I’ll do?
• What do you expect, and how do you feel about it?
On a miss, ask the MC or the other player what goes wrong. They might
have you choose 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps you’ve
revealed yourself to them instead.
Examples:
^^ Jill Cowdery the Interloper is sharing a quiet moment with her friend
Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand, and Jill decides on a whim to draw
him out. She rolls a 6, but with her +2 to the roll it’s an 8, so she gets to ask
1 question.
“So Timothy, as far as this situation with the Wolf King of Winter
goes, what are you forgetting, ignoring, or keeping from yourself?”
Timothy Bones sits bolt upright. “Jill! You’re amazing! I’m forgetting
that while he’s a fairy king, I’m the Crooked Wand. I don’t bow to him!”
^^ Meanwhile, Tip the Lantern Jack has sought out a private audience
with the River Queen. In the River Queen’s winter palace’s frosty reception
chamber, over chilled champagne, Tip draws her out. She rolls a 4 on the
dice, which is a miss even with her +2 to the roll. “What goes wrong?”
“We’ll see. Go ahead and choose 1 anyway,” the MC says.
“Okay. Where is she open to me, where is she vulnerable, and where is
she guarded?”
“Good question. She’s guarded against you because of your respective
places: she’s a queen, you’re just a performer and a common jack to boot.”
“Fair.”
“She’s vulnerable to you if you take a servant’s posture, she’ll forget that
she doesn’t, in fact, command you.”
“She’ll think I’m loyal.”
71
“Exactly.”
“I don’t want to act the servant. It’s not my style.”
The MC shrugs. “You asked, what you do with it is up to you. Oh also,
what goes wrong is, you reveal yourself to her as well, so I’m going to ask
you a question too. What are you afraid she’ll do?”
“I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with her. Does that count?”
“Almost! What would make you fall in love with her? That maybe she
might do?”
“Honestly all she’d have to do is smile at me, if she means it,” Tip says.
“Interesting.”
In circumstances where you can help someone, endanger them, entice them,
or strike them by drawing them out, add this question:
• I do indeed draw you out, by doing —. What’s the effect?
Example:
^^ There will come a time, later on, when Timothy Bones and the Wolf
King of Winter are together on stage. The Wolf King has been dared and
goaded into volunteering to participate in Timothy Bones’ performance.
He doesn’t know what’s coming and he’s on vigilant guard against it.
“He’s putting the audience on edge, isn’t he. Well. I’ll draw him out.”
He rolls a total of 8, for a 7–9 hit. “Good enough. “I do indeed draw him
out, by using subtly submissive body language, putting him at the center of
attention, casually showing him my empty hands — you know, trying to
put him at ease and get him to open up just a little. What’s the effect?”
“He can’t resist an audience, ultimately. He keeps an eye on you but if
you set him up to look good—”
“Oh I do.”
“—then pretty soon he’s strutting and projecting his voice, thinking of
you as his supporting cast, his volunteer.”
“Perfect,” says Timothy Bones.
72
Open Up to Someone
When you open up to someone, roll. On any hit, you capture their attention
and they must hear you out. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a
• Reveal to them what you’d like them to do. If they accede, offer them a
reward or a favor, but if they refuse, you may consider it an insult.
• Reveal to them something you’re considering, and judge their reaction to it.
Ask their player what they think; they have to tell you. This can be implicit
or explicit, and they may or may not realize what they’ve revealed.
• Offer them something, explicitly or implicitly. If they accept it, they’re
beholden to you, in proportion, as you judge it, but if they refuse, you may
consider it an insult.
• Confide in them or explain something to them. Tell them what you reveal
and ask them how they take it. They must answer honestly.
made yourself beholden to them.
Examples:
^^ Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob is announcing the circus.
“Come great, come small!” they say. “We have prepared for you a show
like no other! I’m opening up to the audience.” They roll a 10 and add their
+1 to the roll, for an 11. They get to choose 2 of the options.
“First: I’m revealing what I’d like them to do. I’d like them to gather
around and pay attention, and if they do, I’m offering them a show like no
other. If they don’t, they better look out.”
“Of course they do,” the MC says. “They’re excited, some are clapping,
you have their absolute attention.”
“Good. Second: ‘We’re hear to celebrate the coming spring, the
Breaking of the Ice, and we don’t care what the Wolf King of Winter has
to say about it, do we!’ I’m revealing the circus’ intention to stand up to the
Wolf King. How do they take it?”
“Oh, oh I see,” says the MC. “They take it great, there’s a crackle of
building energy, a mix of thrill, relief, hope, fear. They’re with you. But
hanging back in the crowd, you see one of the Wolf King’s menacing young
retainers, and she doesn’t take it well at all…”
73
^^ The Teapot Girl seeks out her role model, Jill Cowdery the Interloper.
“I run up to you and open up to you, no preamble, I just start blurting
things out. Where are you, by the way?”
“She’s getting the refreshments and novelties for the show in order. Is
there someone else helping her?”
“Hattercob the Bootless,” the MC says.
“Hi Hattercob,” says the Teapot Girl. “Anyway Jill the Wolf King’s
awful friend cornered me and she didn’t do anything but stare at me and
I got so scared I squeaked and I lost my head and when I tried to find it
I lost my feet and I fell all to pieces and— and— And I know you would
have stood up to her, so I want to go find her and confront her, and will you
come with me? That’s what I’m considering, I’m judging your reaction to it.”
“If you’re making the play, do you want to roll it?” says the MC.
“Oh right.” She rolls a 2. Even her +2 to the roll can’t make it a hit.
“Choose 1 anyway,” says the MC. “Since you already have. Jill?”
“I think that’s really dangerous, Teapot Girl. Let’s not do it.”
“Oh.” Crestfallen.
“Want to step toward winter?” says the MC. “For the miss?”
“Yeah. That feels right,” says the Teapot Girl.
When you perform for an audience, opening up to them is often a good and
obvious way to play it.
Example:
^^ Tip the Lantern Jack is juggling for the assembling audience.
“Are you tripping it gaily?” the MC asks; it’s one of Tip’s playbook
plays.
“Nope! Not yet, I’m saving that for the actual show. For now I’m just
opening up to the crowd.” She rolls a 6, plus her +1 to the roll, for a total of
7. “Good enough! Here’s what I’m doing: I’m juggling along, and every once
in a while, I slip in a really dazzling move. Suddenly for an instant there
are 6 balls instead of 3, or they’re sparklers and fireworks instead of balls.
Or I pretend to trip and do a quick handspring, still juggling. Anyway, I’m
choosing to offer them something. I’m offering to give them a real show,
later, where they’ll get to see what I’m really capable of. Do they accept?”
“Do they just! You hear them whispering, ‘did you see that? Did you
see that? What’s she going to DO?’”
“Good. They’re beholden to me, so they’d better make good.”
74
Put Someone Off
When you put someone off, roll. On any hit, they must back off and give you
time and space. On a 10+ hit, they have to physically leave or let you leave
yourself. On a 7–9 hit, they can remain nearby, if they choose, and follow
along behind you if you leave. On a miss, ask the MC or the other player
what goes wrong. Perhaps you’ve insulted them.
Examples:
^^ Now one of the Wolf King of Winter’s menacing young retainers tries
to corner Tip, the Lantern Jack.
“Nah. ‘Go pick on someone else, I’m not in the mood for games,’” Tip
says. She rolls a 9 and adds her +2 to the roll, for a total of 11.
“She slinks off,” the MC says. “If she had a tail, it’d be between her
legs.”
“Good, who cares,” says Tip.
^^ Instead the Wolf King’s retainer stalks off after Jill Cowdery and the
Teapot Girl.
“Jill’s going to put her off too,” Jill Cowdery says. “I like how it worked
for Tip.” She, however, rolls a miss: a 5, minus her -1 to the roll. “Oops.
What goes wrong?”
“I think you insult her. What do you do to put her off?”
“Oh, yeah, I just wave her away, dismissing her, like a princess would. I
can see where she’d be insulted.”
“She is. Instead of leaving you alone, she stalks closer, kind of grinning,
and now it looks like she’s not in the mood for games either. How do you
two want to play her now?”
75
Size Someone Up
When you size someone up, roll. On any hit, ask them questions; they must
answer honestly. These are things that you realize about them from just a
quick look; you need not speak or interact in any way. On a 10+ hit, ask
them 2 questions. On a 7–9 hit, ask them 1.
• What do you intend to do?
• How far are you prepared to go?
• Where are you confident, and where are you uncertain?
• What do you hope will happen, what do you fear, and how prepared are
you for each?
revealed your attention or your intentions to them.
Examples:
^^ “I want to size her up. Jill, I mean,” the Teapot Girl says.
“Not the Wolf King’s retainer?” the MC says.
“Nope.” She rolls a 7 and adds her +1 to the roll, for an 8. “Okay, so
Jill, how far are you prepared to go?”
Jill Cowdery says, “you mean, am I prepared to slip the iron nail out
from where it’s taped to my skin, reveal myself as no fairy at all, and kill the
Wolf King of Winter’s friend for with it, kill her for real?
“That’s what I mean. Are you?”
“I’m really not.”
^^ Meanwhile, Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand has gone directly to

the Wolf King of Winter, in his pavilion tent outside the River Queen’s
winter palace. “I bow for politeness sake, but I don’t lower my eyes. I size
him up.” Timothy rolls a 5, which his +1 to the roll brings only to a 6.
“What goes wrong?”
“We’ll see. Ask 1 anyway,” says the MC.
“Okay. Where is he confident, and where is he uncertain?”
“Well, he’s uncertain what will happen, but he doesn’t care, he doesn’t
think it’s important. He’s confident that you can’t actually touch him. You
might bring spring here, but you can’t bring spring to him. Also, what goes
wrong is, I’m going to ask you 1 in return. What do you intend to do?”
“I haven’t figured out how, but I intend to bring spring to him.”
“That’s rich! His smile widens like, good luck, you’ll need it.”
76
Waylay Someone
When you waylay someone, roll. On any hit, they must drop everything and
deal with your attack. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a 7–9
hit, choose 1.
• You drive them scrambling back.
• You strike them violently, wounding and dismaying them.
• You seize bodily hold of them.
• You throw them off-balance and they stumble or fall.
• You shock and startle them and they panic or freeze.
overplayed your position and given them the upper hand.
Examples:
^^ Everyone agrees that the Wolf King of Winter’s menacing young
retainer is being a bully, and that it reflects poorly on the Wolf King.
“Well, nothing left for it,” Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob says. “Next
time I’m near my wagon, I take out my polished, knotted skull-club, and
next time I see that wolf, I waylay her.” The occasion arises eventually, and
Harebrake rolls a 9, adds her +1 to the roll, and hits with a 10.
“I choose 2?” she says. “Great. I drive her scrambling back and I strike
her violently, wounding and dismaying her.”
“You sure do!” says the MC. They look up the rules for what happens
when a fairy’s wounded, and so they proceed.
^^ And that’s what happened, but what if she’d rolled a miss instead?
Let’s say that she rolls a 5, adds her +1 to the roll, and misses with a 6.
“Oh no. What goes wrong?”
“Well, you haven’t quite gotten the drop on her,” the MC says. “Choose
1 anyway, but don’t choose to strike and wound her.”
“Fantastic, okay. I throw her off-balance. She stumbles and falls.”
“Right on. She dives out of the way, but she can’t keep her feet and she
goes down. Even as she falls, she’s drawing her knife. It’s a bronze seax,
about this long, gleaming sharp, quite a serious fighting knife.”
“Makes sense.”
“How do you want to play it now?”
77
Call for a Line
When you want a suggestion, a prompt, a setup, some backup, some crowd
control, a safety wire, or to hand the action off to someone else, call for a
line. You can:
• Ask for suggestions for your next play.
• Ask someone else to make a play, if they’re willing.
• Ask for solidarity in holding a line.
• Ask for help in reaching an outcome.
• Ask for backup in taking a risk.
The other players and the MC should offer the best help and suggestions
they can. Take them up on it!
Example:
^^ “I’ve shot my mouth off,” Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand says. “I
said that I intend to bring spring to the Wolf King of Winter and I mean it,
but I have no idea how I’m going to do it. Any suggestions, anybody?”
It’s a challenging idea. Everybody reads their playbooks for an obvious
answer, but none appear.
“If we can’t do it ourselves today, how do you feel about making a long-
term project of it?” says Jill Cowdery the Interloper. “We could kidnap him
and take him away with us. Surely somewhere along the line we’ll encoun-
ter a Goddess of Spring or a Cauldron of Rebirth or, I don’t know, the
Summer Stone of Thawing the Wolf King’s Heart. Sooner or later there’ll
be something.”
“You could call for a volunteer and I could dare him to follow me into
the ring during your performance,” says Tip the Lantern Jack. “You could
blindfold him—”
“Or tap him with my thimble to turn him into a bird—”
“—And replace him with me!” says the Teapot Girl. “Turn me into
a bird beforehand. He goes into your sleeve and I come out. It can be the
intro to my performance. I have a plan for my performance, and by the time
I’m done nobody will think to wonder where he’s gone to.”
“Wonderful!” says Timothy Bones. “And as a side benefit, until we find
a way to thaw his heart, I’ll get to keep the Wolf King of Winter in a cage, a
little like my hero, Mommy Fortuna. Thanks, friends! Let’s do it.”
78
Sniff the Wind
When you sniff the wind, roll. On any hit, ask the MC questions, which
they must answer truthfully. On a 10+ hit, ask 2. On a 7–9 hit, ask 1.
• What’s coming this way?
• What’s here that I haven’t yet seen?
• Whose territory is this? Whose doing?
• If I trust my feet to carry me to safety, where will they take me?
• How could I make myself invisible here, how could I go unnoticed?
• If I trust my nose to lead me to the heart of this, where would it take me
next?
anyway, but be prepared for the worst. Perhaps you’ve disturbed something
or someone without realizing.
Examples:
^^ Tip the Lantern Jack, instead of leaving the winter palace after her
audience with the River Queen, has slipped through a side door into an
internal hallway. “Now then,” she says. “Let’s find out what’s beneath the
surface around here. I sniff the wind.” She hits the roll with a 7, plus her
+1, for a total of 8. “If I trust my nose to lead me to the heart of this, where
would it take me next?”
“The kitchen!” says the MC.
^^ Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob has given the Wolf King of Winter’s
menacing young retainer a substantial thrashing with her skull-club.
“Now then,” she says. “It’s one thing to ambush lone goblins on the
heath. Breaking the bones of a fairy king’s retainer is going to have conse-
quences in a whole different category. I’m sniffing the wind.” She rolls a 5,
which is still a miss even with her +1 to the roll. “Well, what goes wrong?”
“Do you want to step toward winter? Maybe the smell of blood
reminds you of bad times?”
“I sure do! It sure does.”
“Cool. Also, choose 1 anyway,” says the MC.
“Okay. So, what’s coming this way? What have I let myself in for?”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. The Wolf King and his retainers are here as the
River Queen’s guests, under the protection of her hospitality. This isn’t just
an offense against him, it’s an offense against her too.”
“Oh, so it is. I should have thought of that. Oof.”
79
Use Your Trappings
Use one of your trappings whenever, however, and as often as you like.
When you do, it might:
• Let you make a play that you wouldn’t be able to make otherwise.
• Turn a miss into a 7–9 hit or a 7–9 hit into a 10+ hit.
• Give you an extra choice, an extra chance, a reroll, a take-back, a do-over,
or dibs.
• Bring another player’s character or NPC to you, or send them away.
• Prevent someone else from taking a particular action or making a play of
their own.
• Start a fight, end a fight, make someone beholden, insult someone, or force
someone to choose a side or declare their intentions.
• Step someone toward summer, toward winter, or, for human characters,
toward their equivalent.
• Have some other novel effect, depending on the trapping’s particular nature.
Quickly consult with the MC and together decide what’s appropriate.
Example:
^^ It’s the circus’ performance at last, and the Teapot Girl is on stage.
Her performance has already had its full intro, and now she’s going to
express herself to the audience in capering antics, one of her playbook plays.
“I’m going to dance with my broom,” she says. “It’s the story of my
encounters with the Wolf King of Winter’s awful friend. I play the wolf,
and my broom plays me, so it’s this terrifying dance where I stalk, hunt,
and menace the broom, who sometimes flees, sometimes stands up to me,
and sometimes panics. Naturally the broom isn’t animate, so it’s all in how
I hold it, how I move it with me while I dance.”
Everyone’s rapt.
“I want to hit this roll with a 10+, so that I can choose the options I
need. It says in my playbook that my broom is a fine dancer. MC?”
“Heck yes. Roll it, and your broom will turn a miss into a 7–9 and a
7–9 into a 10+. Absolutely.”
She rolls a total of 9, and the broom turns it into a 10+ hit.
“I choose, ‘it’s surprisingly beautiful’ and ‘it’s surprisingly frightening,’”
she says.
“You could hear a pin drop,” the MC says. “Even the River Queen is
holding her breath.”
80
Weather the Storm
When you weather the storm, whatever danger, disaster, or developing
catastrophe it is, roll. On any hit, choose 1:
• The storm rages around me but doesn’t move me from my place.
• I ride the storm where it carries me, but don’t lose my feet.
On a 10+ hit, choose 2 or 3 of the following. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1 or 2:
• I’m calm enough.
• I’m fearless enough.
• I’m patient enough.
• I’m quick enough.
• I’m strong enough.
• I can endure the pain.
• I can provide care and healing to those around me.
• I can provide calm and direction to those around me.
• I can provide strength and protection to those around me.
• I am —, or I can —.
On a miss, choose 1 that you are or can, and 1 that you definitely aren’t or
can’t.
In any case, ask the MC what happens and where you are now.
Example:
^^ Did the circus really think it could get away with kidnapping the Wolf
King of Winter, the River Queen’s honored guest, with nobody noticing?
“Pack the wagons, pack them quick,” says Harebrake the Boondoggle
Hob. “I’ll hold everyone off here. Be ready to go, I’ll be coming at a run.”
She weathers the storm. She rolls a 10 and adds her +1 to the roll, for a
total of 11.
“Excellent,” she says. “The storm rages around me but doesn’t move
me from my place, which is, ‘yes he’s missing, but it has nothing to do with
us. Where could he be?’ I choose: I’m calm enough, I’m fearless enough,
and I’m patient enough. I stall by taking charge of the effort to find him, I
organize search parties, I keep everybody going around and around, ‘have
you checked his pavilion? Have you checked the attic? Have you checked
his pavilion again?’ …What happens? Where am I now?”
“Ha!” the MC says. “Where are you now? The wagons are packed, the
circus is ready to go, and you’re coming at a run!”
81
Fighting
For a fight on equal footing between two ready opponents:
Presume that you both take defensive postures, looking to strike the
other without exposing yourself to a strike instead. In order to win the
fight, you need to draw your opponent out of their secure defensive posture.
Therefore, for both of you, your play is to draw them out. You both roll
the play; for NPCs, the MC rolls.
In order to strike your opponent, choose “I do indeed draw you out [of
your defensive posture], by doing —. What’s the effect?” Make your best
bid to fill in the blank. If your opponent agrees that the effect is that you
strike them, so you do.
The consequences of striking and injuring someone depend on their
nature, fairy or mortal. See below, under Violence.
However, all of the options of the play are still available to you, and
there’s no particular reason to prioritize striking your opponent, if you
prefer to draw them out in some other way instead.
Examples:
^^ There may have been some occasion where Harebrake the Boondoggle
Hob squared off with the Wolf King of Winter’s menacing young retainer.
The former with her polished, knotted skull-club; the latter with her sharp,
serious bronze fighting-knife, and neither in the mood for games.
Both draw the other out. Harebrake rolls a total of 10, so asks 2 ques-
tions. The MC rolls a total of 7 for the Wolf King’s retainer, so asks 1.
“Can I go first?” says Harebrake. “So: this isn’t the first fight I’ve ever
been in. I’m fully aware of her body language, her footing, the way she’s
holding her knife. What are you considering, meaning, where and how are
you going to strike?”
“Oh, she’s just coming straight in, no nonsense. Knife to your gut, teeth
to your throat. My question: she does indeed draw you out, or drive you
out, of your defensive posture, like I say, by moving suddenly, directly, and
with her full weight behind her knife. What’s the effect?”
“I’m ready for it! I give way instead of standing up to her, so her knife
doesn’t connect and her momentum carries her past me. That’s how I draw
her out, and I smash her in the head as she goes by. What’s the effect?”
The effect, all told, is that Harebrake wins the fight.
82
^^ Or let’s suppose that the rolls go the other way. Harebrake rolls a total
of 5, a miss, and the MC rolls a total of 11, so asks 2 questions.
“What goes wrong?” Harebrake asks.
“Pretty much everything,” the MC says. “But let’s start with, where are
you open to her, where are you vulnerable, and where are you guarded?”
“Does she know that whatever she does to me, I can shrug it off? That’s
why I’m the one fighting with her, she can do her worst to me and I don’t
mind.”
“She didn’t know that, but now she does. So you’re not vulnerable to
her at all, really. That’s interesting, she’s actually pretty curious about that.
So: she does indeed draw you out of your defensive posture, by making an
expert feint, and when you follow it she cuts you open with her knife. She’s
so good at this it’s almost like you choreographed it between you. What’s
the effect?”
“The effect is, I shrug it off, of course.” She rolls an 8, and you can look
up shrug it off in her playbook if you like. “She’ll be disappointed though,
it’s not interesting, she just cuts me and I shrug it off. I could take it as an
insult if I wanted but I don’t even do that.”
“Excellent!, while that’s going on, because you rolled a miss, I’m going
to ask 1 more question. She can’t hurt you, so what are you afraid she’ll do?”
“Oh no. I’m afraid she’ll get past me and go hurt my friends instead.”
“You don’t say! She finds that pretty interesting too.”
“Oh no.”
For other fights:
If you’re looking to threaten or attack someone without necessarily
going toe-to-toe with them, your obvious play is to confront them or to
waylay them instead.
Should an NPC waylay you, the MC doesn’t roll for them. Instead, you
should choose how to play it. One obvious answer is to weather the storm.
You might choose to play it differently — if you’re the Boondoggle Hob,
for instance, you might shrug it off instead; if you’re the Winding Rose, you
might decide to twine danger around — but weathering the storm is a good
and obvious choice.
83
Helping Each Other Out
Several of the playbooks have plays that can result in the character
becoming trapped in some way, and needing someone else’s help to get out
of it.
To help someone in this way, draw them out, and choose “I do indeed
draw you out [of your predicament], by doing —. What’s the effect?” Make
your best bid to fill in the blank. If they agree that the effect is that you help
them, then so you do.
However, the other options of the play are still available to you. Don’t
neglect them, especially on a 10+ hit.
Example:
^^ Ultimately, the Teapot Girl played her encounter with the Wolf King
of Winter’s menacing young retainer by falling apart, one of her playbook
plays. When that play goes poorly, she needs someone else’s help to pick
up the pieces. As it happens, Timothy Bones has come looking for her, and
finds her in a terrible state. She’s lost her head, lost her feet, collapsed in a
heap, and bust into tears.
“Oh, my dear,” says Timothy Bones. “Let me help you.”
He rolls an 11, plus his +2 to the roll, for a total of 13, a 10+ hit.
“Well first of all, I do indeed draw you out, by picking you up, dusting
you off —”
“Help me find my feet? I lost them. Also I think my teapot rolled under
a bush?”
“Oh my dear. Here they are.”
“That’s MUCH better. Can I give you a big hug?”
“Of course!”
Everyone agrees that Timothy Bones has helped her recover.
“But I rolled a 10+, so I get to choose 2,” Timothy Bones says. “I have a
question for you: what do you hope I’ll do now?”
“Hm. You know magic, right? I hope you take that wolf and turn her
hopes inside out, so that she longs for her worst fears to come true and
dreads the things that make her happiest.”
“That’s very poetic. I’ll have it in mind. We’ll see.”
84
֍
Playbook Plays
֍
Y our playbook has four plays that are unique to you.

Two of them are ways to play a person, and two are ways to play a situation
that you don’t understand or that is getting out of your control.
Make your playbook plays just as you would the obvious plays: choose
one that makes sense to you and that you want to do. Announce your
play by name and pick up two dice. Read the play carefully and follow its
procedure precisely. Roll your dice and add your bonus or subtract your
penalty. A total of 10+ is the strongest play, 7–9 is a good play, and 6 or less
is a miss.
A Few Examples
Harebrake, the Boondoggle Hob:
^^ Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob has stalled and misled her enemies
for as long as she can, and now it’s time for her to make her escape. “I’m
going to make myself something else,” she says. Here’s the play:
When you make yourself something else, roll. On any hit, you become your
choice of:
• A big old croaking raven.
• A flight of a dozen starlings.
• Thousands of centipedes, millipedes, beetles, and worms.
• A single black wasp.
• A beautiful young deer, russet red, with a first year’s antlers.
• A quizzical and stubborn old mutt dog.
• A burning firebrand, pine-pitch smoky and scattering sparks.
You remain so transformed for as long as you choose. On a 10+ hit,
afterward, you can vanish into nothing and reappear later. On a 7–9 hit, at
the end of your transformation, you must return to your own naked self.
On a miss, instead of transforming yourself, you simply step to full winter.
85
Harebrake rolls a 6 and adds her +1 to the roll, for a total of 7. She
chooses 1, and says, “I become a flight of a dozen starlings and fly off in
various directions. They’re bound to lose me.”
“So they are. How long are you starlings?”
“As long as I want, it says. I regather myself once I’ve found the rest of
the circus.”
“Sure thing!” And turning to the rest of the circus, “where are you all
when Harebrake finds you?”
Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand:

^^ Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand is telling the fortune of the River
Queen in winter. “My fortune-telling play is to lay her bare,” he says. Here’s
the play:
When you lay someone bare, roll. On any hit, you reveal something to
them, about them. On a 10+ hit, choose 2. On a 7–9 hit, choose 1.
• You reveal to them their secret heart.
• You reveal to them the hearts and natures of those nearest to them.
• You reveal to them their best way forward.
• You reveal to them their lost past.
Whichever you choose, you don’t know what they learn, but ask them how
they react to the revelation. However, if you have a glass, a basin, or an
oracle to read, you can catch a shadow or a mirror image of their revelation.
Ask them what you see.
On a miss, choose 1 anyway, but in the act, you lay yourself bare as well.
The MC chooses 1 against you, and asks you how you react in turn.
Timothy Bones rolls an 11 and adds his +1 to the roll, for a total of 12.
“Interesting,” he says. “It says that I reveal something to them, but I
don’t know what they learn. I get to choose 2. So don’t tell me, but: I reveal
to the River Queen the hearts and natures of those nearest to her, and I
reveal her own secret heart to her.”
“Okay,” says the MC. “She doesn’t like the news about the people near
her. Let me think about her own secret heart.”
“Sure. Now, I do have an oracle to read — the bones — so actually I
catch a shadow or a mirror image of their revelation. What do I see?”
“Oh that’s easy. You see hunting wolves, and a deer — no, a swan,
caught in thorns.”
86
Jill Cowdery, the Interloper:
^^ Jill Cowdery the Interloper, along with the rest of the circus, is
meeting the River Queen for the first time, in an informal audience
chamber in her Winter Palace. Later there will be a formal reception, but
for now, the River Queen wanted to meet them more casually.
“Wait a second,” says Jill Cowdery. “I have this note in my playbook
about pocketing something: think metaphorically too, it says. Can I pocket,
like, her awareness of me? Steal it from her so that she doesn’t look too
closely at me or wonder about me?”
“I don’t see why not,” says the MC. Here’s the play:
When you pocket something, name it and roll. On any hit, you have it,
unnoticed. On a 10+ hit, you have it profoundly, and its erstwhile owner’s
erstwhile claim to it is already fading from everyone’s minds. On a 7–9 hit,
it’s true that you’re holding it in your pocket, but it’s not true that you have
it, and neither it nor anyone else will believe that it belongs to you. On a
miss, it signals its owner somehow that it’s been taken or misplaced, though
it can’t reveal itself or finger you.
Think metaphorically too, mortal kind.
Jill rolls a miss: a 5, which her +1 to the roll brings only up to a 6.
“Okay…” she says. “Okay. On a miss, it signals its owner that it’s been taken
or misplaced, but it can’t reveal itself or finger me. What happens? What
does she do?”
“That’s funny,” the MC says. “Yeah, so, something’s bothering her, and
she can’t put her finger on it. She keeps gazing thoughtfully at everyone but
you, and she can’t figure out why something seems out-of-place about any
of them. Finally she shakes it off, but you get the feeling that if she thinks
about it later, which she will, she’ll wonder about you then.”
“I hope she’ll take it for fairy glamour, then! Just a fairy princess here
using magic to stay incognito.”
“Could be. We’ll see!”
87
Tip, the Lantern Jack:
^^ The circus is performing for the River Queen in her Winter Palace.
At her side sits the Wolf King of Winter, her honored guest.
The circus has a plan. Timothy Bones is calling for a volunteer to help
him with his next trick, and their plan will work out only if the Wolf King
volunteers.
Tip the Lantern Jack has finished her act and has presumed to linger
near the River Queen’s dias, to watch Timothy Bones perform.
It’s the moment. “I call for a volunteer,” Timothy Bones says. “You’ve
seen the least of my art. Who will come forward to see greater?”
“I leap to my feet to lead the volunteer forward,” Tip says. “But I pitch
my voice so that only the Wolf King hears me: I dare you.” Here’s the play:
When you dare someone to follow you, if they do, roll. On any hit, choose 1
of the following.
• Ask them where their (choose 1) greed, lust, or ambition would take them.
• Ask them where their (choose 1) heart, dreams, or fate would take them.
• You lead them to wonderful treasure. Ask the MC what and where.
• You lead them to a trackless place and abandon them up to their knees in
cold muck-water.
• You lead them to the best seats in the circus, and later they’ll find that they
paid a premium to sit there.
• You lead them wherever you want to. Where?
On a 10+ hit, in addition, they’re beholden to you for serving so faithfully
as their guide. On a miss, you and they get lost together. Ask the MC where
you are now.
“So,” Tip says. “I dare him to follow me. Does he?”
The MC considers. He suspects a trap, rightly, but when did the Wolf
King of Winter ever back down from a dare?
Tip rolls a 9 and adds her +2 to the roll for a total of 11. “I lead him
right up to Timothy Bones and deliver him over with a flourish. Wait. On a
10+, he’s also beholden to me? I lead him into a trap and now he’s beholden
to me too? Oh, this really is the best.”
88
The Teapot Girl, the Stick Figure:
^^ The circus’ performance is done, its plan carried off, and its escape
accomplished.
The Teapot Girl is riding in Timothy Bones’ wagon, where she often
does. “I think it’s my job to take care of your new bird,” she says. “I better
get to work.” Here’s the play:
When you get to work, roll. On a 10+ hit, choose 2 of the following. On a
• No matter how long or how hard you work, you never tire.
• You make it into a dance and a song that gets stuck in everyone’s head.
• You never complain, not even once, not even when — messes up the work
you’ve done so far and you have to redo it.
• People can’t help but joining in. Name a person or two who really can’t help
it, then ask if anyone else joins in too.
• Your work is so exacting and careful that, though it will be perfect, you’ll
never finish it, not if you work a hundred years.
• No matter who else joins in, you work faster, better, and more cheerfully
than they do.
On a miss, choose 1, and in addition, you can’t stop working even after the
work is done. To stop, you’ll need a friend to draw you out.
The Teapot Girl rolls a 7 and adds her +2 to the roll, for a total of 9.
“I make it into a dance and a song that gets stuck in everyone’s head,”
she says. “The name of the song is ‘Let’s Everybody Feed Timothy’s New
Bird’ and it’s a list of everything the bird’s allowed to eat. It’s 25 minutes
long if you sing the whole thing, which I do. It’s like ‘The Name Game’:
millet fillet bo-billet banany fanny mo-millet beetles feetles bo-beetles banany
fanny mo-meetles sunflower seeds funflower feeds bo-bunflower beeds—”
“Oh no,” saith the Hob.
89
֍
Consequences
֍
Fleeting Consequences & Momentum
A t need or at whim, and especially when you miss a

play, the MC may choose to do any of the following to you:
• Have an NPC act against you, or have fairyland itself act against you.
• Wound, shock, affront, or dismay you.
• Tell you to step toward winter, toward summer, or toward your choice.
• Throw you between worlds, or all the way into the other world.
• Turn your play back on you, or have your counterpart make a play
against you instead, the same play or a different one.
• Give you +1 or -1 to your next play, or to the next time you make a
certain play of their choice.
• Change your form, your seeming, or both.
• Have you take the 7–9 result, though you rolled a miss, and step toward
winter as well.
• Have an NPC make an obvious play of their own, rolling dice and
everything.
Don’t be startled!
Examples:
^^ Have an NPC act against you: Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob has
attacked one of the River Queen’s guests, defying her hospitality. The MC
chooses to have her act against them. She sends the captain of her guard, a
willowy nymph armed with a sword of glittering ice, to force Harebrake to
appear before her.
90
^^ Wound, shock, affront, or dismay you: Tip the Lantern Jack stands
up to some enemy, confronting them, but misses the play. She asks the MC
what goes wrong. The MC decides that the details of the situation and
the enemy call for a sudden and severe outcome: “What goes wrong is he
strikes you through with his sword, without warning. You’re wounded,
shocked, affronted or dismayed.”
^^ Tell you to step toward winter: Jill Cowdery the Interloper draws out
Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob, and asks what Harebrake hopes she’ll do.
She’s looking for resolution with Harebrake over a dispute between them,
but Harebrake isn’t looking for resolution at all. “I hope you’ll leave the
circus and we can be rid of you,” they say.
“Ouch,” says Jill. “I don’t know what to say or do. Ouch.”
“Want to step toward winter?” the MC says.
“I mean I don’t want to, but that makes sense. Yeah.”
^^ Turn your play back on you: The Teapot Girl, hoping to get some
perspective, opens up to Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob, but rolls a miss
on the play. She asks the MC what goes wrong, and the MC decides to turn
the play back on her. “What goes wrong is, you just can’t seem to come to
the point. Harebrake, the Teapot Girl is talking to you but you can’t make
heads or tails of it. Why don’t you go ahead and open up to her instead.
Don’t roll, she already did, just choose one of the options.”
“Okay,” says Harebrake. “I’ll reveal what I’d like her to do. Teapot Girl,
I’m pretty busy here, why don’t you go talk to Jill or Timothy or someone.
If you do, I’ll check in with you later, I promise, but if you don’t, I can con-
sider it an insult.”
^^ Give you +1 to a certain play. Tip the Lantern Jack puts off Timothy
Bones the Crooked Wand, rolling a 7–9. “Timothy, you can hang around if
you want, waiting for her to have time for you,” the MC says.
“I don’t want to do that,” Timothy Bones says. “But I’m pretty annoyed,
I don’t want to just walk away and forget about it either.”
“Sure,” says the MC. “How about you walk away, but next time you see
her, if you confront her, you get +1 to the roll?”
“Sounds good.”
91
^^ Change your form: Jill Cowdery the Interloper inadvertently annoys a
goblin in a hollow tree. “He stamps his foot, screeches some nonsense, and
throws his hat at you,” the MC says. “His hat transforms you into a chip-
munk. You’re a chipmunk now. He’s stalking toward you with his hands
like this, to try to catch you. How do you want to play it?”
^^ Have you take the 7–9 result and step toward winter: The Teapot
Girl opens up, not to any person, but to the place, the River Queen’s Winter
Palace. She rolls a miss. “That’s okay,” the MC says. “Take the 7–9 anyway,
the Winter Palace is totally receptive to you. It’s pretty cold, though, so also
take a step toward winter.”
^^ Have an NPC make an obvious play: The circus is meeting the Wolf
King of Winter for the first time. The MC describes him entering casually,
looking them each up and down. “In fact,” the MC says, “he’s sizing each of
you up. I’m going to go ahead and have him make the play…”
92
Summer & Winter (&c)
A s you travel and perform with the circus, step from

summer to winter and back. Change both your imagery and your plays to
reflect the good times and the bad times you’ve had.
For fairies:
When you step toward summer, erase one of the marks in the winter
column and mark the same line in the summer column.
When you step toward winter, erase one of the marks in the summer
column and mark the same line in the winter column.
Whenever you step toward summer or toward winter, take 1 from one
of your plays’ rolls and add 1 to a different play’s roll. Choose intentionally,
to match your feeling about the change. Keep to a minimum of -2 and a
maximum of +3.
Example:
^^ Here’s Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob, in full summer:
 Spring peepers  Beetles
 Crooked nose, shaggy hair  Pointed face, bristly hair
 Berry red, pumpkin brown  Berry black
 Heeled boots  Shapeless felt hat
 Mannish, womanish  Sexless
As a result of missing a play, the MC has them step toward winter.
They erase the mark next to “crooked nose, shaggy hair,“ and mark the
corresponding “pointed face, bristly hair“:
They also take one from their play distract them with tricks and
visions, bringing it down from +2 to +1, and add 1 to their play provoke
them, bringing it up from -1 to 0.
93
Later on, some other circumstance has them step toward winter again.
They erase the mark next to “mannish, womanish,” and mark “sexless”:
This time they take one from draw them out, bringing it down from +1
to +0, and add 1 again to provoke them, bringing it up from 0 to +1.
For human beings:
Instead of stepping toward summer, you step toward bold, cheerful,
free, or open. Instead of stepping toward winter, you step toward careful,
downcast, or wary. In all other ways, follow the rules for summer & winter.
Example:
^^ Here’s Jill Cowdery the Interloper, fully free:
 Crescent moon  Moonless sky
 Pretty eyes  Wary eyes
 Cool periwinkle blue  Slate blue
 A bird’s mask  A cat’s mask
 Womanish  Womanish
As a result of missing a play, the MC has her step toward careful. She
erases the mark next to “pretty eyes,“ and marks “wary eyes“:
 Crescent moon  Moonless sky
 Pretty eyes  Wary eyes
 Cool periwinkle blue  Slate blue
 A bird’s mask  A cat’s mask
 Womanish  Womanish
She also takes one from confront them, bringing it down from 0 to -1,
and adds 1 to her play pass yourself off as royalty incognito, bringing it up
from +1 to +2.
94
Insults
G iving and taking offense is a major fairy pastime.

For fairies:
When someone insults you, you’re allowed by fairy law and your fairy
nature to answer it. It’s considered to be your own unimpeachable right to
weigh the insult and respond in due measure, so only you can choose what
form your answer should take and how extreme it should be. Other fairies
may gossip, but no fairy would rightly stand before you and assert that
you’ve overstepped.
Example:
^^ Tip the Lantern Jack puts off the Wolf King of Winter, and rolls
a miss, snubbing him without much courtesy. “He accepts it graciously
enough and walks away,” the MC says, “but you saw how his smile changed.
You’ve insulted him.”
The Wolf King of Winter now has a measure of power over Tip. Before
they insulted him, he was bound to treat them courteously himself, and
within the bounds of the River Queen’s hospitality. Now he can act against
them more freely, justified by their insult.
For human beings:
When someone insults you, you’re allowed by fairy law to answer it.
It’s considered to be your own unimpeachable right to weigh the insult and
respond in due measure, so only you can choose what form your answer
should take and how extreme it should be. Lenience is a human trait, not a
fairy trait, so if you’re moderate in your response, you can set fairy tongues
wagging.
Example:
^^ Tip the Lantern Jack, who is prone to putting people off and not artful
at it, puts off Jill Cowdery the Interloper as well, and again rolls a miss.
“Of course I’m insulted,” Jill says. “I depart in an obvious huff.”
If Jill really were fairy nobility incognito, Tip could expect her to repay
the insult with some future vindictive act at the worst possible time. But
for Jill, being a mortal human being, the sting of the insult will fade soon
enough and she won’t long hold a grudge.
95
Favors
W hen someone does a favor for you, you’re beholden

to them. Beware, beware of this: your debtor is the one who weighs the
value of their favor versus the value of your repayment, so putting yourself
in debt to someone is always dangerous.
For fairies:
When you are beholden to someone, fairy law and your fairy nature
demand that you make good and deliver the balance. If you’re recalcitrant
or uneager to do repay your debt, your debtor may consider it an insult or a
worse offense.
Example:
^^ Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand opens up to the River Queen, and
offers to read her bones. If she accepts, she’s beholden to him; if she refuses,
she insults him. She accepts.
Now Timothy Bones has a measure of power over her. She’ll owe him a
favor in return, until the day that he considers her debt paid.
For human beings:
When you are beholden to someone, fairy law demands that you make
good and deliver the balance. Human honor might compel you too, but it’s
a lax taskmaster compared to fairy nature. Regardless, if you’re recalcitrant
or uneager to do repay your debt, your debtor may consider it an insult or a
worse offense.
Example:
^^ The Wolf King of Winter offers a favor to Jill Cowdery the Interloper,
who is struggling with some difficulty that he can help her with. She agrees,
and so makes herself beholden to him.
For Jill, a mortal human being, the debt won’t weigh on her the way
that it would on a true fairy. When the Wolf King calls upon her to make
good, a year or a century from now, she may even have forgotten it entirely.
No fairy could forget.
96
Violence
and horrifying.
V iolence in fairyland is considered visceral, irrevocable,
For fairies:
When you’re wounded, shocked, affronted, or dismayed, you must
immediately choose 1:
• You die.
• You withdraw at once in a cold, dignified fury.
• You writhe, moan, and curse in a display of melodramatic agony.
• You step immediately and fully to winter.
• You consider yourself cruelly mistreated and maimed, and will long nurse
your injuries and your grudge.
Fairy death:
“Dying” is a metaphor, even when someone really does it.
Fairies can return from death more or less readily. If you die, here’s
what to do next:
^^ When the circus next performs, remind someone to acknowledge or
celebrate a change in the circus' roster. This lets the circus invite you to
return, or bid you goodbye.
^^ If any of them bid you goodbye, you can choose to remain dead. In that
case, you have three options:
• Leave the game.
• Create a new character to play, either a hitherto NPC or else a newcomer to
the circus.
• With everyone’s agreement, take over as Mistress of Ceremonies, and let
the Mistress of Ceremonies now join the game as a player.
^^ If any of them invite you to return, you can choose to return from
death. You can take the opportunity to change up your summer &
winter imagery and your plays’ rolls, if you like.
^^ If they don’t celebrate the change in the roster at all, or if you think
that they’ve chosen poorly and you want to defy them, you can choose
to remain dead, or return, as you like. If you return from death
uninvited, though, it’s certain then that they’ve insulted you, or you’ve
insulted them, or both.
97
Examples:
^^ Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob gives one of the Wolf King of
Winter’s retainers a violent thrashing, and so wounds and dismays her. It’s
the MC’s choice whether to have her die, withdraw, writhe and moan, or
which, but she decides to get Harebrake’s input.
“She wants to withdraw in a cold fury,” the MC says, “but you’ve got
her cornered. Do you let her go, or do you kill her?”
^^ Things take a terrible turn and the Wolf King of Winter lashes out in
fury in the middle of the circus’ performance.
His nearest and first victim is Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand. “I
withdraw at once in a cold, dignified fury,” Timothy Bones says.
Next is Tip the Lantern Jack. “I writhe, moan, and curse, in a display
of melodramatic agony,” she says.
Finally, the Teapot Girl, who’s been transformed into a little yellow
bird for the show. “He catches you in one hand,” the MC says, “and tears
you in half with his teeth.”
“Oh no!” says the Teapot Girl. “I die!”
“Oh no!” says everyone.
Later on, Harebrake will acknowledge or celebrate the change to the
circus' roster, and invite her back. She’ll return to the circus then, but for
now, she’s dead.
True death:
There are only a few things that can truly kill a fairy. Cold iron is one;
there are others. If you suffer true death, you can’t come back, no matter
how unanimously the circus should invite you.
Example:
^^ Jill Cowdery the Interloper, to get revenge on the goblin of a hollow
tree, touches it with cold iron. She rolls well, and chooses to press the iron
cruelly to the goblin and thus truly kill it. Unlike most killed fairies most of
the time, it’s truly killed and can never return.
98
For human beings:
For human beings in fairyland, like you, violence is no game.
You can shrug off a verbal assault that would murder any fairy dead,
but a sword thrust through you, however playfully, will end your life
forever.
Most fairies won’t kill you on purpose — it wouldn’t occur to them —
but they might kill you at any moment by pure whimsical mischance.
Consequently, you must play violence in 2 different ways.
^^ When you’re verbally assaulted, shocked, affronted, or dismayed,
choose 1:
• You withdraw in as much fury, and with as much dignity, as your human
nature allows.
• You lash out in return, with that distinctive impulsive human passion.
• You consider yourself offended, and will nurse your fleeting human grudge
as long as you’re able.
^^ When you’re physically assaulted or wounded, roll a single die:
• On a 4, 5, or 6, you’re wounded and must nurse your injury until it heals.
• On a 2 or 3, you’re wounded dangerously, and you need to get skilled help
quickly or the wound will kill you. (Any problem solver in the circus will
know what to do.)
• On a 1, you’re fatally wounded. Die now or die in a few painful minutes.
As a matter of curiosity, not of consequence, when you die, one of two
things will happen, entirely outside of your control. The first possibility is
that you will plainly and simply die. The second is that you will die, but not
plainly: something of your nature will remain in fairyland forever, not alive
but animate, some fairy’s truly kept thing.
Example:
^^ Jill Cowdery the Interloper has fallen under the power of a willow
nymph, a deadly waterside creature who drowns what it loves. Ultimately
the willow nymph catches hold of her wrist and pulls her into deep water.
“She drowns you,” the MC says.
The willow nymph is physically assaulting her, so she must roll a die.
It comes up a 4. “”So: she lets you go when she thinks you’re dead,” the MC
says, “and you’re able to drag yourself out onto the bank. I think healing
your injury in this case just means coughing and vomiting all the water out.
You can hear her laughing at you the whole time. What’s your play now?”
99
Love
For fairies:
A few playbook plays say that you charm someone or, maybe, that
someone falls in love with you. Take this to be the fleeting love of fairy
glamourie, intense but not profound.
True love must be given freely. It must be held loosely, and it can be
revoked as freely as it was given.
When a fairy gives their heart, it’s forever until it’s over. When it’s
over, it’s over forever until it’s not. Fairy love is swift as a shadow, short as a
dream, brief as lightning. It’s devoted and inconstant, jealous and forgiving,
heavy in its lightness and serious in its vanity. Its course, famously, never
did run smooth.
Fairy law considers the heart to be the least reliable of organs.
Promises made by the heart are the least binding of promises; favors done
by the heart are the most like gifts; gifts given by the heart are the most like
loans.
For human beings:
Same.
Example:
^^ Everyone knows that Tip the Lantern Jack will fall in love with the
River Queen, if only the River Queen will smile at her once and mean it.
This, ultimately, happens.
It happens at a time when there’s a strain between the circus and the
River Queen, as the circus hasn’t respected her hospitality as fully as she’d
hope and demand. “Her smile’s genuine,” the MC says, “it really is, but
of course you already revealed to her that you’d fall in love with her if she
smiled at you. If you think it’s calculated, that’s your call.”
“No,” Tip says. “Or maybe. But even if it is calculated, if she wants me
to fall in love with her, I want it too. I was right, she smiles at me and I fall
in love with her.”
There are no rules for what this means or how it changes what happens
next. What will come of it? Who knows!
100
Chapter 3:
Sessions & Shows
Rules
^^ Play the game in sessions, with each session being an occasion for the
circus to perform.
^^ Begin the session by talking briefly with the MC about this show’s
place in the circus’ tour, and how the tour’s going so far.
^^ It’s the MC’s job to tell you where the circus arrives, who’s there, and
what’s going on. You can help by asking questions.
^^ Before you plan your show, get the lay of the land. Figure out what this
audience wants from you, and what you want from them.
^^ When you’re ready, plan your show. Give each character a role to play.
Include NPC performers if you choose.
^^ Put on your show, using obvious plays and your playbook plays.
^^ During your show, you have the power to change things here. Use
your power to make your show impactful and consequential.
^^ After your show, wrap up any loose ends.
^^ End the session by choosing to step toward winter or toward summer,
and telling the MC where you’re going to perform next.
101
֍
Sessions & Shows
֍
E ach session of play is an occasion for the circus to

perform. A new place, a new audience to perform for.
The Outline of a Session

1. Begin the session.
2. Arrive.
3. Before you plan your show, get the lay of the land.
4. Plan your show.
5. Put on your show.
6. After your show, wrap up loose ends.
7. End the session.
Note that while this text assumes that you’ll play exactly one session each time
you get together to play, it’s perfectly fine to spread a single session’s play out
over two or more get-togethers if you need to, or to play two sessions in one get-
together if you have time. Just take a break between them to let the MC create
the next place for you to perform.
^^ Begin the session: At the beginning of the session, the MC has some
things to tell you about this upcoming show, and some questions for you
about it and its place in your tour. Questions like:
• How did you come to be here?
• What was your last show? How would you characterize it?
• What’s the next show you’re planning after this one?
Put your heads together as the circus and answer the MC’s questions
however seems best to you. If you don’t already know the answers, make
them up together.
^^ Second, arrive: It’s the MC’s job to tell you where you are now, who
else is here, and what’s going on. You can help by asking the MC any ques-
tions you have, by sniffing the wind, and by sizing up the people you meet.
102
^^ Third, before you plan your show: Before you go straight to planning
and putting on your performance, you might want to…
• Find out what your audience expects.
• Let your audience know what to expect.
• Drum up enthusiasm for your show.
• Place shills in your audience.
• Look over the spot where you’re supposed to perform.
• Arrange your preferred spot to perform.
• Meet your host and establish the terms of your performance.
• Snub your host.
• Find out who likes things the way they are now.
• Find out who wants things to change.
• Find out the laws you’ll be performing under.
• Find out what your audience has in abundance and what they hold dear.
• Get a look at your competitors.
• Winkle out the secrets that people here keep.
• Figure out who’s important in your audience, and who isn’t.
Once you’re satisfied, move on to planning your show.
^^ Fourth, plan your show: Once you know where you are, what’s going
on, what your audience wants, and what you want from them, it’s time to
plan your show.
Use a playbill sheet. Put your heads together again. List the circus’
performers and their acts and duties, and put them in order to plan your
show.
If you don’t already have an idea for your own act or duty, look at your
place in the circus, as listed in your playbook, for inspiration.
Examples of acts & duties:
• Acrobats • Guide & host
• Animal acts • Magic
• Barker & caller • Music
• Bouts against all comers • Novelties
• Clowns • Refreshments
• Feats of grace & beauty • Ringmaster
• Feats of grotesquery • Tickets
• Feats of valor
103
Planning your own act:
Think ahead about how your act will work, in terms of your plays. You
might find it obvious: if you’re the Boondoggle Hob, and you’re planning
your ringmaster routine, you might plan to draw your audience out and
then open up to them, to prime them for the other performers’ acts. Or, if
you’re planning a magic act, you’ll obviously plan to distract your audience
with tricks and visions, and maybe make yourself something else as your
finale.
When it’s not so obvious, you can always fall back on the standard
two‑part act: In the first part of your act, draw your audience out to find out
what they need, what they expect, or where they’re vulnerable to you. Only
then, once you’ve taken your audience’s measure, choose your play for the
second part of your act.
NPC performers:
To fill out the playbill, you can include NPC performers, if you choose.
• Annie Buckeyes • The Lady Rosemarie
• Ballybellow Bess • Mommy Sorrel
• Bumbleburr & Bitterbalm, twins • Much the Tomtom
• Cobweb (of fame) • Ochiran the Stoneswallower
• The Dandyseed Players • Sweet Pea-bloom
• Fallsop the Goblin • Timble the Plum
• Hattercob the Bootless • Varrus & the Family Oxbow
• The Hazelbrake Wind Ensemble
You can suppose that they’ve been traveling with you all along, or else
that you’ve sent word for them and they’ve arrived just in time.
^^ Fifth, put on your show: At showtime, have the MC lead you through
your performance. For your acts you can use any mix of obvious plays and
playbook plays.
Your show has the power to change things for the place and the people
here. Once per show, each of you gets a chance to direct the circus’ power,
following the rules below. Take your turn!
As well, the MC might introduce a “problem person” into your show. If
you don’t win them over, they can blunt the power of your show. The rules
for problem people follow as well.
104
^^ Sixth, after your show: If you have loose ends to tie up, consequences
to see through, or relationships to revisit, now’s your last chance. Make sure
the MC knows and doesn’t pass them over.
^^ Finally, end the session: At the end of the session, the MC again has
a few questions for you:
• How do the events of this show affect you? Who’s stepping toward winter,
and who’s stepping toward summer?
• At the beginning of play, you said you were planning your next show to be
[x]. Is that still your plan, or where are you going to perform next instead?
• Shall we schedule a time to play again?
105
֍
The Power of Your Performance
֍
Your show has the power to change things for the place and the people
here. Once per show — usually while you’re performing yourself, but it can
be during another’s act or at any time — each of you gets a chance to direct
the circus’ power by making one of the show plays below. Take your turn!
Show Plays:
^^ Acknowledge or celebrate a change in the circus’ roster.
^^ Captivate someone in the audience, by name.
^^ Captivate the audience as a whole, inspiring them to largesse.
^^ Change someone’s fortune, by name.
^^ Give this place its voice.
^^ Hold, advance, or turn back the season of this place.
^^ Make the audience dance to your tune.
^^ Turn the circus’ course toward the other world.
^^ Turn the circus itself toward summer or toward winter.
Call for a show of hands. If the other players are unanimous in
support, it’s the strongest possible act of power, with the full intent of the
circus behind it. If it’s a tie or majority support, then it’s a strong act of
power. If it’s a majority or unanimous against, it’s still an act of power, but
it’s weak or, from the circus’ point of view, misdirected.
Don’t vote for your own acts of power, count the other players’ votes.
When the other players choose their acts of power, you vote. You can
cast at most 2 supporting votes per show, so weigh your votes accordingly.
The bounds of your show plays:
^^ Don’t make a show play outside of a performance. If the show hasn’t
yet begun, don’t. If the show has ended, don’t. This is because the
power doesn’t come from the circus, it comes from your audience.
^^ Don’t make a second show play, unless every other player has already
made one, and unless at least 1 of the other players still has at least 1
supporting vote left to cast.
106
^^ Don’t ask someone else how you should vote, and don’t tell someone
else how they should vote. Make your own show plays and cast your
own votes.
^^ The Mistress of Ceremonies can have an NPC make a show play,
especially a problem person or an NPC performer. Go ahead and vote,
same as if a player’s character made the play.
^^ The Mistress of Ceremonies can have an NPC vote on your show
plays, especially a problem person or an NPC performer. Don’t be
startled.
^^ In fairyland and in the mortal world, audiences have more power than
they do in the doldrums between worlds. Between worlds, you each
get only 1 single supporting vote, not 2.
Show Plays
^^ When you acknowledge or celebrate a change in the circus’ roster,
welcoming someone new, bidding them goodbye, or inviting them to
return, any majority means that you’ve truly done so: you’ve bid them truly
welcome, bid them truly goodbye, or truly invited them back. A unanimity
means that the audience joins in as well, with unstinting acclaim. A split or
a minority means that you’ve still done it, but the MC has to consider and
judge: the ones who chose it are beholden to the ones who didn’t; or else the
ones who didn’t choose it have insulted the ones who did. If there haven’t
been any changes to the circus’ roster, don’t choose this.
^^ When you captivate someone by name, it must be someone present for

the performance. A unanimity means that you draw them into the perfor-
mance at its finale, overcome, unthinking, in wonder. A majority means
that they try to meet the performers after the performance, to offer them
praise, opportunity, and/or largesse. A split or a minority means that they
care to meet only you and the other performers who voted their support.
^^ When you captivate the audience as a whole, inspiring them to lar-

gesse, a unanimity means that they share freely what they have in plenty,
and also impoverish themselves of what they hold dear. A majority means
that they only share freely what they have in plenty. A split or a minority
means that they applaud politely and tip well enough.
107
^^ When you change someone's fortune, first name them, then name the
way you want their fortune to change. You can change anything about
them except their nature and their past: their form, their seeming, their
luck, their health, their circumstances, the privileges they enjoy or the
limitations imposed upon them. A unanimity means that the change you
describe comes true in the absolute, and that your subject, this place, and
the people here, if appropriate, are already beginning to forget that it used
to be otherwise. A majority means that the change you describe comes
true as you described it, but that the change is not absolute, and the habits
and memories of your subject, this place, and the people here might, over
time or without care, reassert the old fortunes. A split or minority means
that the change you describe comes true in broad, but those who voted in
opposition can, if they like, put their heads together and choose one way in
which it does not come true.
If you choose to name another player’s character, they can accept, or
else they can demur and have you make a different choice instead.
^^ When you give this place its voice, any majority means that the place
can speak freely in its own voice. Ask the MC what it says. A unanimity
means that, furthermore, it can act, for the moment, on its own behalf. Ask
the MC what it does. A split or minority means that it can’t speak in its
own voice, but you can speak for it. Ask the MC what it whispers to you,
and decide for yourself whether to speak for it.
^^ When you hold, advance, or turn back the season of this place, first
name the course you want the seasons to take. Any majority means that
the season advances, turns back, or holds, according to your chosen course,
and furthermore, that no one else can use their turn to change it again.
A unanimity means that it’s already begun happening by the end of the
performance. A majority means that it’ll begin happening by the end of
the session. A split or a minority means that the season’s advance remains
outside of the circus’ direction: it advances, or does not, just as it would
have if the circus hadn’t come.
When the season of a place changes, it’s up to the MC to reflect the
change in the people and circumstances here.
108
^^ When you make the audience dance to your tune, don’t call for a vote.
Instead, describe what you want the audience to do and draw them out.
Choose I do indeed draw you out, by doing —. What’s the effect?
^^ When you turn the circus' course toward the other world, a unanimity
means that when you leave this place after your show, you’ll arrive in the
other world. A majority means that you’ll arrive between worlds, or into
your chosen world if you were between worlds already. A split or a minority
means that you remain in the world you’re in.
If you’re already between worlds, be sure to choose which world you’re
stepping toward.
^^ When you turn the circus itself toward summer or toward winter,
first choose “toward summer” or “toward winter.” A unanimity means that
everyone in the circus steps twice toward the chosen season. A majority
means that everyone in the circus steps once toward it. A split or a minority
means that you and those who voted their support step toward it, and those
who didn’t, don’t.
NPC Performers & Problem People

Any time before or during the first half of a performance, the Mistress
of Ceremonies can establish that there’s an NPC in the audience, or
even an NPC performer in the circus, who is a “problem person.” This is
someone who has a particular demand or expectation for the circus’ show,
reasonable or unreasonable, and is meanwhile skeptical, bored, hostile, or
otherwise disruptive.
If the show doesn’t meet their demand, or the circus fails to win them
over, they introduce dissonance into the circus’ will, withholding a measure
of the audience’s power for themselves. The MC’s the sole judge of whether
this happens. If it does, the effect is that the problem person can vote
against some or all of your acts of power, turning a unanimity into a major-
ity, or perhaps a majority into a split or minority.
The MC can also have a problem person, or any NPC performer, take
a turn to choose an act of power themself. Vote your support or opposition
as always.
109
֍
An Example Show
֍
O n a subsequent occasion, the circus rolls into the

Goblin Market to perform. They expect it to be an easy show, and indeed,
setting aside a little drama, when it comes time to perform, the audience
is eager, and the overseer of entertainment and games, a goblin called Liza
Halfbat, is satisfied with her bribes and content to let the show proceed.
Recall, the players’ characters are Harebrake the Boondoggle Hob,
Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand, Jill Cowdrey the Interloper, Tip the
Lantern Jack, and the Teapot Girl, a Stick Figure.
During the session, the circus has pieced together that the crowd,
mostly goblins, wants and craves four things from them: music, romance,
real danger, and pretend violence.
Planning their show:
They take a playbill sheet and put their heads together to plan.
“I’ll be the ringmaster,” says Harebrake.
Timothy Bones notes it down. “Harebrake — ringmaster,” he says.
“Who else? Jill?”
“My playbook says that my place in the circus is tickets, refreshments,
and crew,” she says. “So I’ll sell and take tickets, and if any of you need me
for props or lights or anything, I’ll step in. I don’t think we need to compete
with our neighbors in the market to sell refreshments or trinkets, do you?”
All agree that they don’t.
“Good,” says Timothy Bones. Tip and Teapot Girl, you have an act you
do together, don’t you?”
“We do,” says the Teapot Girl.
“We do, but I have a new act I’d like to try out here. Teapot Girl, do
you mind going it alone this time?”
“Of course not! I’m not in the mood for my usual solo act, though. I’ll
think of something. What’s your new act?”
“It’s a bout against all comers. It’s called ‘Ten Against One.’”
“You’re going to fight ten goblins?” Harebrake the Goblin says. “At
once?”
110
“Sure,” Tip says. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Harebrake puts his eyebrows up but doesn’t say more.
“I’ll do my hypnotism act,” Timothy Bones says. “This time let’s call it
‘Eating Hot Coals.’ I have a volunteer in mind. I should say, Jill and I will
do it. Jill?”
“I have a ‘volunteer’ in mind too,” says Jill.
“That’s good,” says Harebrake.
“Oh, I know,” says the Teapot Girl. “Put me down as ‘The Teapot Girl
in Apples, Plums, and Cherries.’ Harebrake, can you help me with the act?”
Harebrake puts his eyebrows up even further. “You’re going to do a
fruit-themed act? At, you know, the Goblin Market?”
She smiles and winks.
“I think we need another act,” says Timothy Bones. “Right now it’s just
the ringmaster plus three.”
“You can use any of the NPC performers you want,” says the MC.
“A musical interlude?” says Jill. “The Hazelbrake Wind Ensemble?”
“They have a nice piece they do called ‘Quarreling Birds,’” the MC says.
(The MC’s improvising this, it’s never been established in play.) “It’d suit
this crowd nicely.”
“Sounds good,” says Timothy Bones. “I’ll put them in after me, before
‘Ten Against One.’”
“Actually, Jill,” says Tip, “Can I also help you sell advance tickets? I
want to start setting my act up from the beginning.”
“Of course! Please do.”
Here’s their final playbill, in order:
^^ 1. Jill & Tip: Tickets.
^^ 2. Harebrake: Ringmaster.
^^ 3. The Teapot Girl (with Harebrake): Apples, Plums, and Cherries.
^^ 4. Timothy Bones: Eating Live Coals.
^^ 5. The Hazelbrake Wind Ensemble: Quarreling Birds.
^^ 6. Tip: Ten Against One.
^^ 7. Throughout, Jill: Crew.
111
1: Tickets
Jill Cowdrey & Tip the Lantern Jack
Well-bribed, Liza Halfbat, the Goblin Market’s overseer of games and
entertainment, has scheduled the circus to perform during the dinner rush
on the last full market day: the prime hour.
“We start selling tickets in the morning before the show,” says Jill. “I’m
just taking money and giving tickets, masked and businesslike, making
myself forgettable. Tip’s doing the actual selling.”
“I’m sure I can sell plenty of tickets just by trying, right?” Says Tip. All
agree that they can. “So here’s the thing. I have a number of free tickets, and
whenever I see a big, mean-looking goblin, a real bruiser, I give them a free
ticket and dare them to follow me. I’m looking for ten — no, make it fifteen
or twenty of them, the toughest customers. Like I say I’m daring them to
follow me. Will they?”
“Who wouldn’t? I guess one or two are suspicious, but not suspicious
enough to turn down a free ticket. You can have as many hard-bitten gut-
gouger goblins as you want.”
Tip hits the roll with a 7. “I choose I lead them to the best seats in the
circus, and later they’ll find that they paid a premium to sit there. By ‘best seats’
I mean aisle seats, and the premium is, when I call for volunteers, they’ll
look poorly if they don’t. Make sense?”
“Makes sense to me,” says the MC.
“Makes no sense to me,” says Harebrake. “No kind of sense at all.”
2: Ringmaster
Harebrake the Goblin
“Take your seats, take your seats!” says Harebrake. The circus is to
perform on an open stage in the market square, not large, with bleachers
all around it. Every seat’s full, the audience is crowded in and packed tight,
with a further crowd outside the ropes trying to get a look. The MC’s said
that half the food stalls around the square have already sold through their
supplies and shut down for the night. Some, the sturdier, have sold seats to
people who couldn’t get tickets, to watch the circus from their roofs.
“Tonight, my friends, We have for you an act like no other. Listen and
attend! Something sweet, something mysterious, and a shocking finale,
112
a finale that has me, personally, your own honest Harebrake the Goblin,
rocked honestly back on my heels. I’m opening up to them.”
Harebrake misses the roll.
“I think it’s clear what you’re offering them,” the MC says. “But I’ll tell
you what goes wrong: this is a jaded audience. They don’t believe you. You,
Harebrake the Goblin, knocked back on your heels? They think you’re
blowing smoke. They’re willing to go along with your for now, but if you
don’t make good, you’ll be beholden to them.”
“Fine,” says Harebrake. “They’ll see. Do you hear that, Tip? This ‘Ten
Against One’ of yours better slay.”
“I hear,” says Tip.
“Friends, friends!” Harebrake says, now addressing the crowd again. “I
give you: The Teapot Girl in Apples, Plums, and Cherries!”
3. Apples, Plums, and Cherries

The Teapot Girl (with Harebrake the Goblin)
“Harebrake, at the edge of the stage there’s a bowl of fruit,” the Teapot
Girl says. “Got it? Jill, you’re ready with the lights? I come in between the
bleachers, dancing with my broom. Single spotlight on me.”
“Single spotlight,” says Jill.
“I’m costumed as the ingénue clown, in a pretty summer dress, with
pink circles on my cheeks. My broom is costumed as a goblin clown, in a
rakish cap and red vest. We make our way up onto the stage, and by the
time we get there, we’re fully realized characters, especially my broom:
bold, sly, and comical.”
“The crowd loves it,” the MC says. “They think the broom’s fantastic.
You can’t over-caricature them, the more goblin it is, the more they like it.”
“Great! It’s a juggling act. When I signal, Harebrake, throw me a piece
of fruit. I catch it, keep dancing, juggle it, ask for another, take a bite, keep
dancing, share a bite with my broom, more fruit, more juggling, sharing the
fruit with my goblin broom, always dancing. My play is expressing myself in
capering antics.” She rolls and hits with an 11. She smiles. “First I choose
it’s surprisingly beautiful. How’s the crowd taking it so far?”
“Oh they’re in love with it. They’re rapt. They’re sighing dreamily,
swaying in their seats. One of Tip’s big bruiser goblins is openly weeping.”
113
“All right. Now comes the ending. At the perfect, poised moment, I
drop an apple — but it wasn’t me, it was the goblin broom. I’m startled, but
I laugh it off. Ha ha, brooms are so clumsy. We get back into rhythm, but
then, the broom steps on my foot! I swirl away from it, hopping in pain. It’s
actually quite a move, keeping the broom upright and following after me
while I look like I’m moving away from it, juggling a pear and an apricot at
the same time. Nobody in the crowd notices, because of the emotion of the
piece, but it’s quite a move.”
“I notice of course,” says Tip. “Very nice move.”
“I’m opening up to the crowd,” says the Teapot Girl, with a smile aside
at Tip. She hits the roll with an 8. “I choose, reveal to them what I’m consid-
ering, and judge their reaction to it. I’m considering leaving this goblin broom
guy, he dropped an apple and stepped on my foot! What do they think,
does he deserve one last chance?”
“They do! They do! Someone in the crowd even calls out: ‘no, Teapot
Girl! Give me another chance!’”
“Okay, one more chance. Harebrake, throw me the banana. I trust my
broom to juggle with me again. I start to draw close to it again. We eat the
banana together — it’s not like that, I mean, it’s only a little bit like that —
but the significance is, I forgetfully drop the peel on the stage.”
“Oh no,” says the MC, and any number of goblins in the crowd, and
Harebrake too.
“I still have a choice left from expressing myself in capering antics. Here
it is: it’s surprisingly funny: I do a spectacular fall on the banana peel. I drop
all the fruit I’m juggling, it bounces all over the stage. My heels go up, I’m
windmilling my arms — and my broom catches me. It’s another great move
that nobody notices, looking like I’m falling but the broom catches me and
sets me back on my feet. We dance off the stage together. Ta da!”
4. Eating Live Coals

Timothy Bones (with Jill Cowdrey)
“I bound out onto the stage,” says Harebrake the Goblin. “The Teapot
Girl! Apples, Plums, and Cherries! Put your hands together!”
“The crowd’s on their feet! Teapot Girl! Teapot Girl! Someone’s like, ‘I
love you Teapot Girl!’”
“Outside of the spotlight, I sweep the fruit off the stage,” Jill says.
114
“Using my broom?” says the Teapot Girl. “That’s hilarious, please use
my broom.” She gestures handing her broom off to Jill, and they share a
laugh.
“Now, friends, next, friends, for your amazement,” says Harebrake to
the crowd, “the mysterious and compelling powers of the Crooked Wand,
Timothy Bones, in: Eating Live Coals.”
“I step into the spotlight,” says Timothy Bones, and the MC mimics
the applauding crowd. “My costume gives the impression of a shabby coat,
but when I move, it’s black velvet and deep red brocade. I barely tip my hat
to the audience. I don’t shout, I speak in almost a normal tone. ‘A volunteer,
please. You.’ I point my crooked staff at the human being.”
Earlier in the session, they met and conversed with a mortal human
being, Carl Albers, who had come into the goblin market somehow by
accident. He doesn’t believe that the what’s happening to him is real, they
learned. He believes that he’s dreaming or something, but he’s decided to go
along with the Goblin Market and act as though it were real, for now.
“Carl, come here, my friend. Good, stand here. Everyone, you’re being
rude: this is my friend Carl.”
“The crowd applauds,” the MC says. “Someone shouts, ‘good luck with
the live coals, Carl.’”
“No need to worry, Carl,” I say. “I’m just going to ask you a few ques-
tions, have you do a few simple tasks. On my word, have no fear. Please,
first, I’m going to ask you to wear this blindfold. Is he willing to put it on?”
“You can see him reminding himself that it’s just a dream and that he’s
decided to go along with it, so it takes him a minute to resolve himself. But
then yes, he puts it on.”
“Good. So here’s my act. I’m going to ask him some questions and
have him eat burning coals — really just put them in his mouth and spit
them out again, not swallow them. But that’s just the act. My real play is to
get the audience so fixed on what’s happening with Carl, that I’m actually
blindfolding them instead. Sound good?”
“Sounds good,” says the MC.
“First a question or two. Carl, you’re a mortal human being, yes?”
“Yes,” says the MC, as Carl.
“I see. Some goblins enjoy eating live coals, you know. On a dare, or as
a treat. Is this true of mortal human beings too?”
“No.”
115
“In fact, Carl, do mortal human beings ever eat live coals?”
“No, never.”
“What do mortal human beings eat, on a dare, or as a treat? Or let’s
start with this: what’s something that mortal human beings like to lick?”
“Lick? Like a lollipop?”
“A lollipop! I happen to have a lollipop here in my hand, Carl. Please
stick out your tongue.” Timothy Bones gestures holding forward a live coal
in tongs. Jill, helpfully, sticks out her tongue and goes to lick it.
“Okay, now I’m blindfolding the crowd.” He rolls and misses, with a 5.
“Ah. Oh. Hm. What goes wrong?”
“I’ll think about it. Go ahead and choose one first,” the MC says.
“Okay. While I’m performing, they don’t notice what Jill is doing.”
“And what are you doing, Jill?”
“Well, I’m worried about that miss Timothy rolled, but here goes.
I leave the spotlight shining on Timothy and go down into the market.
Remember I was looking over the goods in that jewelry shop? I’m going to
pocket something.”
“Now I’m saying, what’s something that mortal human beings like to
eat, if not live coals?” says Timothy Bones.
“Cool,” says the MC. “Timothy’s play says, on a miss, maybe blinding
them to some things awakens their awareness to others. Before you make your
play, you should know that the jeweler will be able to tell that a mortal
human being robbed him, not a goblin or fairy. By the atmosphere in his
shop, maybe because he’s focusing so hard on another human being right
now, Carl. Do you still want to go through with it?”
“I do. I’m after that amber panel pendant that shows images of distant
places,” a magical treasure she admired earlier in the session. She rolls and
hits with a 7. “Well, I have it, but it’s not true that I own it,” she reads out,
“and neither it nor anyone else will believe that it belongs to me. Fair enough, it
doesn’t. Still, I go back to the spotlight with it in my pocket.”
“Now I’m saying, Carl, what would you say is in your mouth? A live
coal, or a pickled egg?” Timothy Bones says. “While I’m at it, I’m going to
make my show play. Since our next show’s supposed to be in the human
world anyway, I whisper to him, ‘come with us when we leave, we’ll take you
home.’ I’m going to turn the circus’ course toward the other world. Who’s in
favor, hands?”
116
It’s unanimous. When the circus leaves the goblin market, it’ll arrive
next in the mortal human world.
“Good,” says Timothy Bones. “I wrap up my act. I take the live coal out
of Carl’s mouth, take off his blindfold — I don’t let him get a good look at
the live coal, it might upset him, maybe I even have a pickled egg handy to
let him catch a glimpse of instead. You’re all set, Jill?”
“All set.”
“Then I snap the audience out of it. Carl Albers, everyone! A round of
applause! Thank you, Carl. Take a bow!”
“Timothy Bones, and Carl Albers!” says Harebrake. “And now: the
Hazelbrake Wind Ensemble, with ‘Quarreling Birds.’”
5. Quarreling Birds
The Hazelbrake Wind Ensemble
“While they’re performing,” says the Teapot Girl, “should I make a
show play? Retroactively, since I forgot during my act?”
“You should if you want to,” says the MC. “Which play?”
“That’s the other thing, I don’t know which one. I guess I could
captivate that one goblin who fell in love with me? Not that I want to meet
them or have a fling with them or anything. Oh wait, I know! I’ll change
their fortune. It’s good luck to fall in love with me, wouldn’t you say?”
Everyone votes in favor, except Tip. Nobody asks why — the rules say
to cast your own vote and let everyone else cast theirs, no meddling — but
we all know that if anybody asked, Tip wouldn’t answer anyway, just shrug.
“Let’s see,” the MC says. “Teapot Girl, you say how their fortune changes.
On a unanimity, it’s permanent; on a majority, they might revert over time.
How does their fortune change?”
“They become incredibly lucky. Their business booms, whatever it
is. They win at dice, their investments all pay off. They’re extra lucky in
love. At first they can have their pick of lovers, but pretty soon, they find
someone they’ll truly commit to, and who’ll truly commit to them.
“Since the change isn’t permanent, that’s where my good luck takes
them. Where they go after that, is up to them! I hope they’re very happy.”
All agree that this is appropriate. “Teapot Girl, you’re so nice,” Jill says.
“‘The Quarreling Birds’ is coming to an end right about now. The
crowd’s whistling and clapping. You’re up next, Tip!” says the MC.
117
6. Ten Against One
Tip the Lantern Jack
“I bound onto the stage. I call out at the top of my lungs: TEN!
AGAINST! ONE!
“I’m Tip the Lantern Jack, and I say: ten against one! Who’ll take those
odds? You, sir? You, madam? Ten against one! The rules are simple. Send
your ten best, your ten worst, your ten most ferocious on stage to face me.
Each one, puts a golden coin into this bowl. I match each coin with a golden
coin of my own. (I flash coins so everyone can see them shine. I throw one
into the bowl so it rings like a bell.) Attack me singly or all at once — you
decide. If you knock me down, you each take your own coin back from the
bowl, and look, you take one of my coins to go with it! Ten against one!
Risk one coin to gain two!
“Too difficult, you say? Too risky, you say? When did ten, you say, even
ten stout brawling dandies like you, ever knock down Tip the Lantern Jack?
I tell you, it’s happened once or twice, truly it has. But I take your point!
How can we even the odds?
“Look! I balance the bowl on my head! You ten, you need not even
knock me down! All you must do is knock the bowl from my head. And
see? I almost dropped it without your help!
“Still no takers? Still you quake in fear of the fists (I show my fists) the
boots (I’m not wearing boots, I’m wearing soft dancers’ slippers, but I caper
on my heels as though they were boots) and the jagged gnashers (I snarl
and snap, my teeth are perfect) of Tip the Lantern Jack? Fair, fair! I take
your point. THREE COINS FOR ONE!”
And to the MC: “tell me I have my ten takers. Tell me I have more than
ten! Those free tickets weren’t for free.”
“You know it. One or two maybe couldn’t make it after all, or whatever,
but absolutely.”
“Great, great! I count them up onto the stage. I have each one throw
their coin into the bowl so that it rings, and make a show of throwing
two of my own coins into the bowl too. Eight, nine, ten — that’s enough,
madam, you’ll have to — no, no, I take your point. Come up, come up.
Eleven, twelve, and yes, thirteen!
THIRTEEN AGAINST ONE! ONE COIN FOR THREE!”
To the MC: “the crowd better be going wild at this point.”
118
“Of course!” says the MC. “Thirteen against one? They’re roaring.
They’re shouting bets at each other, they’re on their feet.”
“Okay! I put the bowl on my head for safekeeping, you can hear all
the coins ringing around in there. Okay! You look like a swaggering and
bloodthirsty bunch of bravos and no lie. I fear I’ve made an error! But no
— thirteen against one it is. First, a test of your strength! You, number one,
stand here. Number two, step up! Lock elbows together, thus, and lock
knees, so. Number three, next! Lock elbows, good. Lock knees, good. No,
yours behind, yours before, good! Number four!
“So I line them all up on the stage, one through thirteen, locked
together by the elbows and knees.”
Harebrake catches on and starts to laugh.
“Now I address the crowd. Thirteen heroes of Goblin-kind! Each fierce
and terrible! Each ready to perform acts of violence upon the person of Tip
the Lantern Jack, which is to say, myself! Each with gold to spare! Look at
this one, at that one, and this one yet — as filthy and unscrupulous a crew
as you could imagine! And hist, is this a hidden dagger? It is! Thirteen
against one, and you bring a dagger too for my guts or my gullet? Keep your
protests, sir, we all saw it! Away with it. A villain, you, and villains the lot!
Who wishes to see these cutthroats, these back alley butchers, rewarded?
Three coins, for their one? You, madam? You, sir? Shall they band together,
thirteen against one, and strut away, arm still in arm, with the reward?”
To the MC: “Okay, for this to work, I’m going to need to draw the
audience out. I want to bring them onto my side, as the underdog, against
these thirteen. Not by playing on their pity, by planting the idea that if it’s
thirteen against one, they should be rooting for the one, not the thirteen. If
goblins — I mean, come on, if goblins won’t pull for the underdog, who on
earth will?”
“Got it,” says the MC. “Go ahead with the roll?”
Tip hits the roll with an 8, and reads from the play: “I do indeed draw
them out, by doing like I said. What’s the effect?”
“It’s subtle, but you notice when the crowd tips over. Someone jeers
them instead of cheering for them, and just like that they’ve lost the crowd’s
support. They’re still standing there confident and bold, they don’t realize
what’s happening yet at all.”
“You’re so kind,” says Tip. “At that moment, I hold up my hand for a
countdown. THREE!”
119
“Three!” says the MC for the crowd.
“TWO!”
“Two!”
“ONE!”
“One!”
“I whip the bowl off my head and smash number 13 solidly in the face
with it. I’m waylaying him, actually all thirteen of them.” Tip hits the roll
with an 11. “I shock and startle them and they freeze, and I throw them off
balance and they fall. Particularly, number 13 falls off the edge of the stage,
and since they’re locked together, number 12 falls off the edge of the stage,
then number 11, then number 10… Meanwhile, all the gold goes flying into
the air for anybody to catch who wants it. I help number 1 over the edge
with a last little shove.
“I jump up, fists in the air. THIRTEEN! AGAINST! ONE! HA!”
The crowd goes wild.
Wrapping Up
“All righty,” says Tip, “let’s make a show play of that. Captivate the
audience as a whole, inspiring them to largesse. What do you say?”
It’s unanimous again. The play says that on a unanimity, the audience
shares freely what it has in plenty, in this crowd’s case, laughter and its best
insults, and even impoverishes itself of what it holds dear, genuine words of
praise.
“Perfect! I can always use some new swears,” Harebrake says.
“Everyone on stage for final bows!”
120
Intermission:
A Miscellany
Topics
^^ Fairyland, the Mortal Human World, and Otherwise.
^^ The Fairy Seasons.
^^ Games Fairies Play.
^^ A Glossary.
^^ Sources & Inspiration.
121
֍
A Miscellany
֍
Fairyland, the Mortal Human World,

the World Between, & Otherwise
T here are two worlds: the mortal world and fairyland.

There’s a liminal space, not a world, between them. The circus can travel
from one world to the other, perhaps stopping between them. To do so, you
just have to choose to, together, when you perform.
Are there other worlds than these two? I can’t assure you that there are
none.
The Fairy Seasons

High Summer
Fi
rst
e
Ev
Summer
hi
's
er
ll
m
Lingering Autumn
m
Su
Mud Season
Autumn
Spring
Fi
rst
F
Winter
aw
ro
Th
st
rst
Fi
Deep Winter
If there were a fairy year, it wouldn’t have 4 seasons, it would have up to

12, varying freely one year to the next.
122
Each of the 4 mortal seasons is a crux:
^^ Spring can become Summer, or else it can become Mud Season, and
so remain, indefinitely, until Summer’s Eve heralds summer’s coming
after all.
^^ Summer can become Autumn, or else it can become High Summer,
and so remain, indefinitely, until the First Chill in the air heralds
Autumn’s coming after all.
^^ Autumn can become Winter, or else it can become Lingering
Autumn, and so remain, indefinitely, until the First Frost heralds
Winter’s coming after all.
^^ And Winter can become Spring again, or else it can become Deep
Winter, and so remain, indefinitely, until the First Thaw heralds
Spring’s return after all.
The course of the fairy seasons depends on the will and the efforts of
the local fairies themselves. The circus can play a part: when you perform,
you can choose whether and how the seasons progress.
In the mortal world, the year is set, of course: spring to summer to
autumn to winter to spring again. This is true, except that even in the
mortal world, the fairy circus can turn summer into high summer, autumn
into lingering autumn, winter into deep winter, or spring into mud season.
Games Fairies Play
M any things which are, to mortal human beings,

unchangeable nature, or deadly serious, are to the fairies only games.
Gender:
You may have a true gender, innate to yourself — some fairies do, some
don’t; some human beings do, some don’t — but whether you have one or
not, you can make gender a part of the imagery you use to express yourself
and your changing nature.
When you introduce yourself, say your pronouns, and if they change
from summer to winter, say them again!
This game text makes free use of singular they, both in its indetermi-
nate sense and its nonbinary sense, and you may too.
123
Size:
In fairyland, everything is the right size, or else the wrong size for
comedic or dramatic effect. Shrink the entire circus down so it can perform
for a nation of atomies in a hollow tree, and the Crowned Stag must still
duck under the doorways!
Time:
For fairies, the laws of time and causality are the rules of stories and
jokes: setup, suspense, punchline, denouement. The game’s moves are:
 Just then…
 Meanwhile…
 In the nick of time…
 Too soon…
 Too late…
 A year, a month, a week, and a day…
And others, you know them.
Age:
You might be tempted to guess that spring–summer–autumn–winter
line up with youth–adulthood–maturity–old age, and indeed some fairies
sometimes play it that way, but those aren’t the rules of the game.
^^ The River Queen’s prolonging winter and putting off the Breaking of
the Ice. The longer it goes, her face — always beautiful, never young
— becomes drawn and strained, showing every day more age. But her
lover, the Wolf King of Winter, no matter how silver his hair and how
lined his face, becomes only more handsome.
^^ The Wolf King’s Son is a strapping youth in spring, tall and free on
the fairy roads. As spring turns to summer, does he put aside his
youth, or does his youth flower into another childhood?
^^ The Giant Gorebore is a horror in any season. Who’ll wait on his
island until spring to see if the chasmic lines in his face, the looming
stormhead of his brow, the jagged boulders of his teeth seem younger
than they did in winter?
Crowned Heads:
Just another game, as though any person, any creature, any force of
nature could stand above others and proclaim its right to rule them.
But how serious are its stakes, and do its players remember that they
are at play?
124
Fairy Coins:
There are three denominations of fairy coin: a shaving, a measure, and
a trove.
A shaving is an annoying and reasonable amount to pay for something
small. A meal or a ticket to the circus costs a shaving.
A measure is an annoying and reasonable amount to pay for some-
thing good and valuable. Your usual share of the circus’ take is a measure.
Were you to buy a new wagon or a thimbleful of stars it would cost you
a measure. Maybe it’s 20 or 50 shavings to the measure; there’s no set
schedule.
A trove is too much, really, to pay for anything. The entire circus,
empty its stores, sell off its wagons, collect its outstanding debts, would be
worth a trove. Maybe it’s 200 or 500 measures to the trove, maybe more.
Because they’re a game and a symbol, fairies can treat anything valuable
as coins. Take a shaving off the applause of the crowd, receive your measure
of joyful misrule, or, famously, pay a queenly tithe to hell with the trove of a
stolen mortal knight’s soul.
125
֍
A Glossary
֍
Archaicisms & Esoterica

Astonied: Believe it or not, astonied is the earlier form of astonished. It’s
related to stunned, thence thunder: essentially, thunderstruck. Astonied is
noted “archaic” or “obsolete” in dictionaries, but I’m unswayed by such
stodgy condemnation.
Bend a Knee: To bow or curtsy. By extension, to defer, especially to
nobility, right, precedence, privilege, class, achievement, dignity, or as an
equal, not implying compulsion, authority, or force.
Ciderer: Someone who makes cider as a vintner, wine.
Daub: Plaster, clay, or paint, spread thickly and artlessly as a surface
treatment.
Doldrums: Lethargy, or a place so uneventful that you get stuck there.
Used by extension of the sailors’ term for a windless sea. Doldrums
may have been constructed originally contra tantrums, substituting
dol-, meaning “dull,” for tant-, meaning either “vanity” from German,
“trumpeting” from French, or “passion” from Welsh. This suggests an
interesting avenue for new constructions: “We spent the whole weekend
in the ludrums, nothing but game after game at our house!” “Pass me my
notebook, I think I’m about to throw a ludrum.”
Festoon: To hang with decorative ribbons, garlands, or flowers. Also a
weird bird from a Shel Silverstein poem.
Gambol: To run and jump playfully. Carries an implication of innocence:
lambs gambol, but an old sheep only gambols when it remembers spring
and its lost ... lambency? That can’t be right.
Heraldic Shield: A shield-shaped wooden plaque, not a fighting shield.
Hang it above your chair or in its place on the wall in mead hall, feasting
hall, or hall of court, to proclaim your presence and boast your name.
“Jack”: While Jack, along with Tom, Dick, Harry, and Everyman, is a
gendered term, gender is a game and you can play it however you like.
Largesse: Generosity in gift-giving, or the gifts generously given.
Leaf Spring: A bow-shaped steel spring originally used for carriage
suspensions. For heavier suspensions, made with multiple layered leaves.
126
Oilcloth: Canvas treated with oil to repel water.
Shillelagh: A very good stick, cured by hanging it in your chimney until it’s
glossy black and rock hard, something over three foot long, made from
heavy root wood of blackthorn, oak or crabapple, with a knot at one end
for a handle when it’s a walking stick and for skulls when it’s not.
Squib: A kind of firecracker, or a short piece of satirical writing: a hiss and
a snap.
Wicker Withes: The flexible branches, strips, or splits of wood used for
basketry, chair caning, windbreaks, and other wickery.
Winkle: To get something out of something — usually, to get information
out of someone — with effort, cunning, art, and trickery. Named after
an edible snail, for the difficulties involved.
The Circus
Aerialist: A performer who does acrobatic feats on the wire or the trapeze.
Barker: A performer who stands outside the gate, the tent, or the sideshow,
proclaiming marvels, bantering with passersby, and drawing customers
in. The barker’s patter, half scripted and half improvised, is called “bally”
or “ballyhoo.”
Bouts Against All Comers: An act in which a performer invites volunteers
from the crowd into the arena for a fight or other contest. The circus
or the performer generally puts up a prize or a purse. If the bout’s fair,
hitting on the right combination of enticing to win, but inexpensive
to lose, is an important piece of the act’s planning. If the bout’s rigged,
other considerations might prevail.
Caller: A performer who, in a dance or synchronized performance,
calls out the figures or signals the moves. Alternately, a performer
who explains the performance in progress to the audience, building
expectation and suspense, and acting to focus and direct the audience’s
attention and reactions.
Capering Antics: Contra more neutral terms like tumbling, juggling, or
pantomime, “capering” implies grotesque, exaggerated movements, and
“antic” implies senseless, misdirected, or uncontrolled emotion.
Chicanery: Cons, gags, fixes, frauds, rigs, scams, schemes, shorts, bits,
grifts, gaffs, games, skims, shades, set-ups, mooches, swindles, cakes,
plasters, pitches, pastes, patches, brush-offs, blowoffs, cool-offs,
handoffs, face-offs, psych-outs, jams, bags, hooks, rackets, lines, draws,
pranks, fades, swaps, runs, joints, bull, filches, shills, stings. The bunk.
127
Clown: A performer who creates problems out of nothing, and after many
attempts, solves them in the way least convenient to themself or to
others. Or else, or simultaneously, a performer who breaks the circus’
implicit rules, putting themself and others in danger that never quite
comes true, or that was never as bad as it seemed.
Conjurer: A performer who produces items from unlikely places, secrets
from unlikely informers, or sounds or voices from unlikely sources. This
being fairyland, the conjurer’s conjury might be all sleights and trickery,
might be real magic, or might be a surprising mixture of the two.
Cook: A worker who does the valuable job of taking the scraps, refuse,
parings, and cans who’ve lost their labels that the provisioner provides,
and from them feeding the entire circus.
Costumer: A worker who does the valuable job of caring for the
performers’ costumes, whose time and leisure is so evidently unlimited
that the performers press them into every task of mending, laundry,
styling, fashion, and personal advice, whether circus business or no.
Creative Collaborator: Performers need to conceive, develop, and refine
their acts. This is difficult or impossible to do alone.
Crew: Workers who work directly with the performers while they perform,
and between performances: operating spotlights, working the lines of a
trapeze or trampoline, putting props in position, clearing one act for the
next, hiding inside a platform to create a magical effect, or whatever the
performers require.
Escapade or escapado: An act of tumbling, juggling, or acrobatics,
with the addition of an element of danger: a flaming hoop, swinging
pendulums, torches or chainsaws for juggling, a “hostage” the performer
places in peril.
Fortune Teller: A performer who divines and reveals the nature, secrets,
future, or fortunes of a volunteer. Fortune-telling isn’t generally an
audience-captivating act, with its true audience of one, but under some
circumstances — performed for a Queen before her court, for instance
— it can be. Otherwise it’s often relegated to the side show.
Gaff: A rigged prop, the mechanism of a rigged game, or the rigged item
that makes a magic trick work. By extension, any con, scam, or gag.
Guide: A performer who leads the audience through the show. Like
a ringmaster, they present the show to the audience, but unlike a
ringmaster, they take a pretend position outside the show, not part of it.
Heel Dragger: A worker who does the valuable job of refusing,
malingering, complaining, braking, pointing out downsides, stirring up
discontent, and harshing the vibe.
128
Host: A performer who acts the host, upending the true hospitality
relationship in play and establishing, for purposes of the show, the
audience as the circus’ guest. This isn’t a necessary act; without a host
performer, the ringmaster traditionally needs simply to acknowledge the
true host — “so with your permission, your majesty, we will proceed!”
— and get on with the show. Instead, acting the host lets the performer
reverse expectations of honor, gratitude, liberty, right, and reciprocity,
an effect which a canny circus can put to good use.
Juggler: Some jugglers specialize in juggling more things, some in juggling
dangerous things, some in flashy maneuvers while juggling, some in
juggling absurd things, and some in novel forms of juggling.
Lookout: A worker who does the valuable job of watching for what’s
coming and judging, at a snap, whether it’s good for the circus or bad.
Even if the circus’ conscience is clean, it’s not that clean.
Mark: A member of the audience, evidently rich and evidently gullible; a
promising prospect for chicanery. So called because when you spot a
likely target in the crowd, you surreptitiously scuff them on the shoulder
with chalk, to identify them to your fellow chicanerists.
Muse: A worker who does the valuable job of inspiring, provoking,
unsettling, and getting under the skin of the performers while they
should be working on acts that’ll sell to a crowd.
Novelties & Trinkets: The circus might offer novelties and memorabilia
to its audience: keepsake playbills, signed personality cards, toys, flags,
branded clothing, water bottles — anything an enterprising producer
might think up. The workers who do the actual selling are in a position
to observe the audience very closely, without coming under much
scrutiny themselves.
Opener & Closer of Doors: A performer who reveals the show to the
audience. The pretense here is that the show would otherwise be
private to the circus, and the opener & closer of doors decides which
performances the audience may witness, and which they may not.
Overseer of Work: A worker who does the valuable job of pointing out to
you things you don’t want to do.
Performer: If your playbook lists your place in the circus as “performer,”
without suggesting an act, you should come up with your own act or
acts. Often it’s because the playbook’s suitable for several or many
possible acts, and there’s no reason for it to limit you to only one or two.
Look over the playbill for example acts.
129
Planner: A worker who does the valuable job of taking inadequate
information, competing needs, and the opinions of the other planners,
and from them deciding what, exactly, the circus is going to do.
Plant: A worker or performer who pretends to be part of the audience, to
volunteer, cheer, or otherwise support an act.
Playbill: A poster, placard, or printed brochure that lists the sponsors of
the circus, the performers, the acts, announcements, rules, and perhaps
the circus’ future shows. In the game, the worksheet the circus players
use to plan their show.
Pratfall Comedy: An act where the main appeal is, the performers fall
down in spectacular, comical, and painful-looking ways.
Problem Solver: A worker who does the valuable job of handling the
bribes, soft-talking the authorities, wedging the loose poles, finding the
level ground, redirecting the hecklers, and swinging the skull-clubs.
Provisioner: A worker who does the valuable job of sourcing and acquiring
the foodstuffs, especially, that the circus depends upon for its survival,
but also string, tinware, wax paper, and band-aids.
Refreshments: Depending on the details and specifics of the show, the
circus may offer cheap, convenient food and drink to the audience.
Popcorn, peanuts, fried dough, soft drinks, beer, lemonade — or, this
being fairyland, refreshments much more novel than these.
Ringmaster: A performer who acts as the announcer and director of the
other acts; the voice of the circus to the audience.
Roustabout: A worker who does all the work of the circus not otherwise
accounted for.
Shill: A worker or performer who pretends to be part of the audience, so to
vouch for or help sell a performer’s claims or wares.
Slapstick Comedy: An act where the main appeal is, the performers do
violence to each other in spectacular, comical, and painful-looking ways.
Slapsticks, by the way, are mock-weapons made of two laths of wood
that clap loudly together when you hit someone with them, making it
sound like you’ve cracked them a really ringing blow.
Spectacle: A performer who does something — or simply is —
momentous, spectacular, outsized, or bizarre.
Star: A performer who’s captured the devotion of the crowd, beyond the
details of their act.
Tent-pole Show: An important show around which you’ve planned your
season’s tour. It could be a show you love and always play, an opportunity
you don’t usually get, or a command invitation you wouldn’t dare miss.
130
Tickets: Depending on the details and specifics of the show, the circus
might sell and collect printed tickets, stamp hands, offer reservations,
give special invitations, or just take your nickel and pass you through
the gate. The workers who do this actual work are in an important
gatekeeping position, able to pick out marks or spot potential problems
for other members of the circus to deal with.
Tumbler: A performer who does acrobatic and gymnastic feats: leaps, flips,
somersaults, handsprings, cartwheels, and so on.
Worker: If your playbook lists your place in the circus as “worker,” without
suggesting a job, you should come up with your own job or jobs. Often
it’s because the playbook’s suitable for several or many possible jobs, and
there’s no reason for it to limit you to only one or two.
Costuming
Counterchanged: A repeating geometrical pattern in two colors. The
checkerboard is a simple counterchanged pattern in red and black;
counterchanged patterns can be quite a bit more complex.
Dressmaker’s Form: A model torso on which you construct a garment.
Might be made of shaped blocks of wood, basketry, bent tin hoops, or
panels of cloth-covered foam on a frame. Often changeable in a variety
of particular dimensions, whether by adjusting the structure of the form
itself or by building it out with an assortment of additional pads.
Fillet: A hairband of ribbon, garland, or metal. Used since antiquity; the
laurel wreath is a fillet.
Harlequin: A pattern of (usually) diamond shapes in (usually) a few
different colors, outlined against each other in (usually) white, black,
brown, or gray. Named after the commedia dell’arte character, whose
original costume was made with blocky patches to indicate poverty, but
whose character and costume became more sophisticated as the form
went on.
Motley: Motley is the particular particolored (below) and visually
incoherent costume of the jester. It may include ribbons, bells, dagging,
exaggerated hat or shoes, or pieces borrowed or added on in odd
ways. Significantly, in Elizabethan England, motley wasn’t subject to
sumptuary dress laws, and so literally placed the wearer outside of
normal society.
131
Mummers’ Rags: A costume made of an undergarment sewn all over
with free-moving ribbons or strips of rag, often with a hat and veil of
the same. Mummers’ rags emphasize and disguise your body and your
movements, to striking or disorienting effect.
Particolor: Particolor clothing is made with one vertical half in one color,
and the other in another; or else in quarters, usually with opposite
diagonal quarters in the same color. It was a fashion in medieval Europe,
part of the larger fashion for heraldry.
Tatterdemalion: Old, poor-fitting, patched, ragged clothing. Possibly
originally literally “tattered shirt.” The implication is of poverty.
Vagabond’s Rags: Hard-worn, torn, patched clothing. Contra
tatterdemalion, specifically names the traveling life, the wandering life,
the unsettled life as the reason for the clothing’s poor repair.
Fairy Matters
Beholden: Literally, held, bound. A gift or a favor creates an imbalance
between two people that binds one to the other. You must answer to the
giver to regain your self-possession.
Boggart: An elf, goblin, or sprite. An imaginary fear, a bugbear.
Etymologically related to a wonderful family of words, including bugbear
(aforementioned), bug (like a bug or like to bug someone), bogey (like
the bogey man or an enemy plane caught on radar), buck (like to buck
someone off your back), and Puck (that Puck). Not related to bogart
(like a joint), that’s named after a different guy.
Boondoggle: A kind of knotwork or square braiding, used for stop knots,
handles, fobs, and the like. Specifically, boondoggle doesn’t come undone
by itself the way knitting, crochet, or some whipping does. Thus “a
boondoggle” is an intractable problem, a knot you can’t unpick.
Cold Iron: Any iron, really; the “cold” is for emphasis. Many fairies — in
the game, practically all fairies; in real life, only some — can’t abide its
touch. I’ve heard that the idea is a mythic memory of a time when iron-
wielding conquerers invaded the islands and defeated their tin-working
indigenous inhabitants. Personally I find the proposal too convenient,
but I leave it to the reader’s sensibilities.
Crowned Heads, or Fairy Crowns: Queens, kings, and other crown-
wearers of all sorts. By extension, anyone you must, might, should, or
won’t defer to.
132
Fairy “Kinds” (Goblin Kind, Mousey Kind, Witchy Kind &c): Fairy kinds
are a convenience for our benefit. They aren’t true. Fairies are like stories:
they don’t have species, they fit into no rigorous catalogue, and when it
suits them to have classes or families, they’re always changeable, always
interpretable, always waiting to be seen in a new light.
Form, Seeming, & Nature: We can suppose that all beings have their
nature, whole and unique (if changeable); their form, which may or
may not conform to their nature; and their seeming, which is the least
reliable of all. If we then suppose some enchantment of transformation,
we can imagine that the least enchantment is to change someone’s
seeming, then someone’s form, and the most enchantment is to change
someone’s nature. So the game conceives it.
Glamourie: The charged, pervasive magical atmosphere of fairies and
fairyland; fairy magic, fairy enchantment, fairy arts.
Hob: One of many local words for fairy, elf, or goblin, or one of many local
kinds of fairy, elf, or goblin, if you prefer. I read somewhere that until
Shakespeare popularized “fairies” with A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
in English “elves” was the umbrella term. Anyway, a Hob is a goblin of
the household, the field, or the countryside, in Northern England and
the Scottish Borders. It’s the hob in hobgoblin and in Hobbit. It’s is also
a shortened version of Robert, so in that way it’s like the Jack in Jack
O’Lantern, the Robin in Puck Robin, and the Will in will-o’-the-wisp
(itself also sometimes called hobby-lantern).
Pisky: More commonly spelled pixie, but pisky is also correct. A local word
or local kind of fairy, mischievous, impish, delighted by trouble, eager to
mislead. Pisky-led means lost.
Secret Heart: We can suppose that all beings have their nature, whole
and unique (if changeable); their self, which may or may not conform
to their nature; and their self-awareness, which is the least reliable of
all. If we then suppose some magic of revelation, the arts of a fortune-
teller, we can imagine that the least profound is to reveal someone’s
self-conception, then someone’s self, and the most profound is to reveal
someone’s nature, their “secret heart.” So the game conceives it.
Shifty: In shifty-kind: a shape-shifter. All beings’ natures can and do
integrate many forms. Shifty here means a fairy who can take off and put
on their different forms, if not freely, still more freely than you or I.
Troll: A word for fairies or a kind of fairy: large, powerful, dangerous,
territorial. Ancient, but perhaps not patient. Often shapeshifters.
Elemental: you might say a stone-troll, a tree-troll, a mountain-troll, a
river-troll.
133
Under the Hollow Hills: Fairyland, contra the Mortal Human World,
places between worlds, and other worlds here unnamed. “Under the sun,
under the moon, or under the Hollow Hills” means everywhere, you
know, more or less.
Walking Blackthorn (& other walking trees): Trees walk, as we know.
Blackthorn is famously the wood used for Irish fighting sticks. The
“ten of walking blackthorn” among the Crowned Stag’s warrior elite are
presumably ten walking blackthorn trees, but they might be ten warriors
afoot armed with blackthorn fighting sticks.
Whisps: Correctly, wisps, as in a wisp of smoke or a will-o’-the-wisp. Slight
fairies, airy, mercurial, next-to-nothing. Why it’s here misspelled with
the wh is a matter for conjecture; likely by mistaken [or poetic —VB]
association with whisper.
Wicker-wise: Wise in working. Sensitive to the unseen, crafty (if you know
what I mean), or blessed with second-sight. Exclusively, of mortal human
beings: fairies are never wicker-wise. Perhaps a healer, a magician, a true
priestess, or a kitchen witch. The term comes from a false and debunked
etymology linking witch, that is, wicce, with wicker, and is more subtle
maybe than it seems: the true witch-wisdom is hidden against discovery;
we have no direct recourse to it. Our route to it is made twisting by
supposition, wishful thinking, and convenient false equivalences. So
we must seek it in bunkery and find our way to it despite, if we can.
The truth is poetry, we might say, even when the poetry is a lie. Or else,
wicker-wise means wise in working on its own terms, no debunked
etymology required: weaving-wise, braiding-wise, boondoggle-wise,
mending-wise, knot-wise; wise in the warp and the weft; wise in the
ways of the fates and the spiders, the labyrinth-dwellers, our sisters.
134
֍
Sources & Inspiration
֍
Headlining
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and
Traditions by Wirt Sikes (1880).
Cirque du Soleil: Crystal (2017), Kurios (2014), Luzia (2016), & Ovo
(2009).
A Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy Arrowsmith (1977).
Irish Fairy & Folk Tales by W. B. Yeats (1888).
The Muppet Show (1976–1981).
The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies by Robert Kirk
(1815).
Featuring
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Also Through the Looking-
Glass, & What Alice Found There by Lewis Carrol (1872).
An assortment of fairy-themed fantasy and horror movies, some more
good and some less good, including The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the
Mountain King (2017), Border (2018), The Hallow (2015), The Hollow
Child (2017), Horsehead (2014), Muse (2017), Ondine (2009), Song of the
Sea (2014), Thale (2012), Trollhunter (2010), Wildling (2018).
Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (1889–1913).
Arthur Rackham, H. J. Ford, Leo & Diane Dillon, Andrew Goldsworthy.
Avner the Eccentric, Dominique Pinon, & Andrey Jigalov.
A Bug’s Life (1998).
Halifax Busker Festival 2018.
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen (1997). Dragon Scales &
Willow Leaves by Terryl Givens (1997). Fairy Tales & Fables by Gyo
Fujikawa (1970). The Summerfolk by Doris Burn (1968).
Christina Rosetti, John Keats, Edward Lear.
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (1964–1968).
Circus (2010).
135
The Circus 1870–1950 by Linda Granfield (2016).
The Circus Fire: a True Story of an American Tragedy by Stewart
O’Nan (2008).
The Complete Encyclopedia of Elves, Goblins, & Other Little
Creatures: Secrets Revealed by Pierre Dubois (2005).
Darby O’Gill & the Little People (1959). Also, Finian’s Rainbow (1968).
Eshu Bumpus, Davis Bates, & Janet Glantz.
Faeries by Alan Lee & Brian Froud (1978). Also Froud’s Good Faeries/Bad
Faeries (1998) & Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book (1994).
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman (2012).
Hartsbrook Garland, Juggler Meadow Morris Men, Wake Robin Morris,
& That Long Tall Sword.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein (1937). Also the Rankin-Bass rendition
(1977).
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (2007).
Kamille Hitz & Rockabelly.
Labyrinth (1986). Also, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (1968), and the Rankin-Bass
rendition (1982), but no less The Folk of the Air (1986).
Little, Big: or, The Fairies’ Parliament by John Crowley (1981).
Loafer’s Glory with Utah Phillips (1997-2001).
Lyonesse by Jack Vance: Lyonesse (Suldrun’s Garden) (1983), The Green
Pearl (1985), & Madouc (1989).
Maddigan’s Fantasia by Margaret Mahy (2005).
Mechanique: a Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine
(2011).
Many Moomin books by Tove Jansson (1945–1970 & etc), and at least one
TV series.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, in text and in
several productions, live and filmed. Also, As You Like It, Hamlet, Romeo
& Juliet, The Tempest, &c., ditto.
Over the Garden Wall (2014).
Penn & Teller: Fool Us (2011–).
The Pentangle, Christie Moore, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Eliza
Carthy, Faun, Garmarna, Hedningarna, Julie Fowlis, June Tabor, Pete
Seeger, Steeleye Span, Tim Eriksen, and uncountable many more.
Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee (1983).
Also her short story “UOUS“ (2005).
136
The Reckoning (2002). Also, Judy & Punch (2019).
The Regard of Flight (1983) with Bill Irwin, Michael O’Connor, & Doug
Skinner. Also, Old Hats (2013) with Bill Irwin & David Shiner.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1966), and the
film (1990). Also, Shakespeare In Love (1998).
Scary Fairy Godmother (2015–).
Several Studio Ghibli films, but especially Spirited Away (2002) & Kiki’s
Delivery Service (1989).
Shel Silverstein, especially “An Invitation” & “Enter This Deserted
House,” from Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974), but you can’t go wrong.
The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner (2018).
Slings & Arrows (2003–2006).
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962), and
moreso the film (1983).
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi
(2003–2004), and the film (2008).
Tom Waits, especially The Black Rider (1990), but of course Alice (2002)
and any number of his vaudeville songs.
The Weetzie Bat books by Francesca Lia Block (1989–1998). Also I Was
a Teenage Fairy (1998) & The Rose & the Beast (2000).
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner (1960), and its sequel,
The Moon of Gomrath (1963).
Wings of Desire (1987) and its sequel, Faraway, So Close! (1993).
…And the three or four that we’ve forgotten, even though they were the
crucial thing at the crucial time.
137
Chapter 4:
The Mistress of Ceremonies’ Timelines
Rules
^^ Before your first session, write up an occasion, a place and an audience
for the circus. This’ll be the circus’ first show.
^^ You can have the circus players choose and create their characters in
advance, or all together at your first session.
^^ Begin the session by telling the circus about the place and audience
you’ve prepped, and asking them about the (imaginary) show they
most recently performed.
^^ Begin play by telling the circus where they are, who’s there, who greets
them, and what’s happening, then by asking them how they want to
play it.
^^ During the session, help them figure out what their audience wants
from them, and what they want from their audience. When they’re
ready, help them plan their show on a Playbill sheet, then help them
follow their plan to put their show on. Remind them to make their
occasion plays.
^^ After the show, wrap up any loose ends. End the session by asking
them where they plan to perform next; whether, reflecting on the
session, they’d like to step toward summer or winter; and whether
they’d like to schedule a next time to play.
^^ Between sessions, choose new occasions for the circus to perform and
write them up.
^^ Play subsequent sessions just as the first, following the circus wherever
it goes.
138
֍
Timelines
֍
Y ou’re the Mistress of Ceremonies, Under Hollow

Hills’ game master. Your job is to play fairyland, the mortal human
world, the places between worlds, and all of the inhabitants of all of
them, except for the players’ characters.
Before the First Session

^^ Download the play material: the circus playbooks, the reference play
sheets, and your occasion writeup sheet.
^^ You don’t need to carefully read through this book. Do read
Introduction: The Circus & the Game; Chapter 2: Plays & Consequences;
and this chapter.
^^ Look over a few of the circus playbooks in Chapter 1: The Circus
Playbooks. Read one or two of them carefully through, so that you
understand their layout and their procedures.
^^ Follow the rules in Chapter 7: Occasions to prepare an occasion, venue
and audience in fairyland. This will be the circus’ first show.
^^ From the downloads, share the Players’ Introduction and the character
playbooks with the players. You can ask them to choose their
playbooks, or even to create their characters, in advance of the first
session.
Bring to the first session:

^^ Printouts of the playbooks, if the players aren’t bringing their own
themselves.
^^ Several printouts of the Obvious Plays to put out where everyone can
refer to them.
^^ A copy or two of the Playbill.
^^ The occasion & NPCs that you’ve written up for their first show.
139
Creating Characters
Have the players create their characters, if they haven’t done it before-
hand. They should be able to work through their playbooks independently,
but here are some points to highlight as they go:
^^ A character playbook has two sides, the setup side and the play side.
During character creation, you use the naming rules on the setup side
to write your name on the play side, for instance. You choose summer
& winter imagery from the setup side and copy it over to the play side.
^^ Speaking of the naming rules, they’re there for you if you want them,
but you’re fairies! You don’t need to follow any rules that you don’t
enjoy. Who’s going to force you?
^^ You don’t choose between the various jobs and roles under Place.
They’re all yours.
^^ When you’re assigning your plays, don’t agonize. During play, you’ll be
changing them all the time. You’re just choosing your starting place,
not setting your character in stone.
^^ That said, one easy and obvious way to assign your plays is to put your
high numbers in your playbook plays, and your low numbers in the
obvious plays that seem less appealing to you.
^^ The way the plays are designed, you should think of your low plays
as ways you get into trouble, not as things you can’t do. For instance,
a low rating in confront them doesn’t mean that you can’t confront
someone, it means that when you confront someone, it’s more likely to
go wrong somehow.
^^ The numbers you have to divide out among your plays are listed
conveniently on the play side of the playbook too. You can cross them
out as you use them.
^^ Point out which plays are for playing people, and which are for playing
situations that they don’t understand or that are out of their control.
^^ Like with your place, you don’t choose between your trappings, you
get all of them.
^^ Once everyone’s chosen their playbook, their name, their imagery,
their place, their plays, and their trappings, it’s time to bring the
characters together for their bindings.
140
Their bindings:
Have them introduce themselves. Ask each player to say:
^^ The name of their playbook;
^^ Their character’s name and pronouns;
^^ Their place in the circus;
^^ Their summer imagery (or the corresponding, for mortal human
characters);
^^ Their playbook plays;
^^ Their wagon (or none); and
^^ Another trapping or two that they find interesting or noteworthy.
Go around again for bindings. Emphasize that if no one volunteers for
any particular binding, that’s fine.
Beginning the Session

^^ Give them a Playbill sheet and tell them they should look it over, but
not to plan their performance yet.
^^ Tell them that, as they know, the game follows the circus on tour: that
they’ve been performing together for a long time or a short time, but
together; that they’ve come from a previous performance and they’ll
proceed to a next performance; and that you have some information
and questions for them about how their tour is going, as follows.
^^ Tell them about the occasion you’ve written up: where it is, who’s the
audience, and what’s the occasion. Tell them that this is the show that
they’re about to perform, and that they’re arriving now. But before you
begin play…
The previous show in their tour:

Ask them about the show they’ve most recently performed, the show
they’re coming from now. Ask them specifically:
• Was it in fairyland or in the mortal world?
• What was the location? What was the occasion?
• Would they describe it as (a) an easy show, (b) a hostile crowd, (c) a hungry
crowd, (d) a minefield, or (e) a welcome respite?
• How did their performance go? Well? Poorly?
141
The next show in their tour:
Ask them about the show they’ll be traveling to next, the show on the
schedule after this one. Ask them specifically:
• Is it in fairyland or in the mortal world?
• What’s the location? What’s the occasion?
They should answer freely, collectively, as they’re inspired. You might
assure them that you have no particular answer in mind, you’re simply
curious about their tour.
Don’t let your curiosity run away with you, though: you’re about to
begin play.
Beginning Play
^^ They’re arriving at the place you’ve prepared. Tell them what they
see, hear, smell. Tell them what the place looks like as they approach.
Technically, this is your first play: say where.
^^ You’ve planned the moment of their arrival, so tell them what’s
happening here. You’ve also planned the NPC who’ll greet them, so
introduce them and make their play.
^^ Ask the players how they’re going to play this character you’ve
introduced, or how they’re going to play the situation.
^^ If they’re hesitant, encourage them to start off easy by sizing your
notable up and/or by sniffing the air.
^^ Answer their questions, and play’s underway!
142
In the Early Session
^^ In the first part of the session, the players should figure out where they
are, what’s going on, what their audience wants, and what they want
from their audience. You can point the passage out to them on their
playbill: Don’t plan your show yet!
^^ Tell them to take their time, see what they can figure out, and then
when they’re ready, get together to plan their show.
^^ Meanwhile, let them move freely around the place you’ve prepared.
Let them meet their audience, have its notables rush up to meet them
or hold back to draw them out. Let them find out what their audience
has in abundance and what they hold dear, as largesse.
^^ If you have a problem person in mind, introduce them.
^^ You should also tell them, or at least hint, the opportunities they
might have here.
^^ Make your plays freely, whenever you can get one in. Your early plays
are to describe things, and to have your NPCs approach, proclaim
things, and open up.
^^ Always ask the players how they’re going to play it, what’s their play.
^^ And always remember the general “two plays” rule: you can let
somebody make two plays in a row, if you want, but if they’re going to
make a third, turn to someone else and come back to them later.
Mid-Session: Planning Their Show

^^ If they don’t come to it themselves, you can prompt them: hey, I think
you’ve figured your audience out. Ready to plan your show?
^^ Tell them first to list all the performers who’ll perform, then figure
out their acts.
^^ Remind them to look through the list of acts & duties to consider and
decide which ones they need to include and which ones they don’t.
^^ Remind them that they can include any of the NPC performers
they want, or none. Tell them that when it’s only NPCs alone in the
ring, you probably won’t pay much attention to them. Their PCs’
performances will be the important ones.
143
^^ Tell them that eventually they’ll have to put the acts in order, but they
can list them all out first, if that’s easiest.
^^ Encourage them to think ahead about how their acts will work, in
terms of their plays. If anybody’s struggling, remind them of the
default two-part act: first to draw their audience out, second to choose
a suitable play now that you have their measure.
^^ Point out the section about the power of the performance, and make
sure they all understand how that process is going to go.
^^ Sit back and let them plan their show! You’re there to answer
questions if they have any, not to help with the plan.
Playing Out Their Show

^^ Once they’ve planned their show, return to normal play. The show’s
about to begin. Say where. Describe the performance space and the
audience as its assembling.
^^ Follow their lead, have them make their plays, and help keep the show
moving.
^^ React for the audience. Tell them when the audience catches its
breath, when it leans forward eagerly in suspense, when it laughs,
when it cheers, when it screams in fear or delight. You yourself are
their real audience! Enjoy the show.
^^ If you’ve established a “problem person,” judge for yourself when or
whether the circus wins them over.
^^ As the circus performs, if they need prompting, remind them to
exercise the power of their performance. Tally up the votes and bring
their outcomes into play. Look back to Chapter 3: Sessions & Shows for
the complete details.
144
After Their Show: Ending the Session
^^ Resolve any outstanding questions and wrap up any loose ends in play.
The session’s over.
^^ Ask the circus specifically:
• How do the events of this show affect you? Who’s stepping toward winter,
and who’s stepping toward summer?
• At the beginning of play, you said you were planning your next show to be
[x]. Is that still your plan, or where are you going to perform next instead?
• Shall we schedule a time to play again?
Subsequent Sessions
^^ Play subsequent sessions just like the first.
^^ Before the next session, choose a new occasion and write it up. You
should usually create the occasion the circus expects, but once in a
while it’s okay to surprise them with a closed bridge, for instance, or
another unavoidable interruption.
^^ After you’ve played a few sessions, consider planning the tour. See
Chapter 4: The Tour for details.
^^ Play with the form, as you feel comfortable. Open in media res, play
with flashbacks, goof off, experiment.
145
Chapter 5:
The Mistress of Ceremonies’
Principles & Plays
Rules
^^ As Mistress of Ceremonies, your job isn’t to play a fairy in the circus,
but to create and play places and occasions for the circus to perform,
and audiences for it to perform for.
^^ You have principles and rules for prep and for play.
^^ You have moves to make on your own behalf, moves to make for your
NPCs, and moves to make for the places in play themselves.
^^ Follow your principles, follow your rules, and make your plays!
146
֍
Your Principles
֍
A s the Mistress of Ceremonies, you HERE

During play, your job is to:
^^ Make fairyland vivid (and the mortal human world too).
^^ Follow the circus wherever it goes.
^^ Give the circus good times and bad times.
During prep, your job is to:
^^ Daydream fairies and fairyland.
^^ Daydream dangers and opportunities for the circus.
^^ Create places and occasions for the circus to perform, and audiences
for it to perform for.
During play, you should always:
^^ Say what your prep demands, unless you have a genuinely better idea.
^^ Say what honesty demands, unless you’re playing around on purpose.
^^ Say what the game’s rules demand, unless nothing.
^^ Take turns. Everybody gets to make their play, and so do you.
^^ Say, “how do you want to play this? What’s your play?”
147
֍
Your Plays
֍
When to Make Your Plays

^^ At the beginning of a session, start by making a play. First say where
the circus is, who’s there and what’s happening, then bring an NPC
forward to make one of their plays.
^^ When there's a lull in the game, and it’s time to regather, refocus, or
restart it, make a play. You can say where the circus is and then bring
an NPC into the scene, as when you begin a session, or you can turn to
someone else and ask them where they are now and what’s happening.
^^ When someone turns to you to find out whats happening or what’s
next, make a play. You can choose any play you like, one of your own,
one of your NPCs’, or the place’s itself. Always choose one that makes
sense in the circumstances, in the moment.
^^ When someone misses a play, and asks you what goes wrong, make a
play to answer them. Choose a play that makes sense in the moment
— one of your own, one of your NPCs’, or the place’s itself — but be
sure to choose one that constitutes something, in fact, going wrong.
^^ When someone's had their turn, and now it’s time for someone else’s,
your play is to turn to someone else.
^^ When you feel that you should interrupt the conversation of play, to
head it off, reign it in, or take it in a particular direction, get the other
players’ attention and make a play.
^^ When someone else has done something, and one of your NPCs can
react to it, make one of their plays.
The purpose of your plays isn’t to restrict what you say and do, but
to make sure that you have a reliable list of things to say and do at every
moment of play. You might find yourself referring back to them often or
seldom. Only remember that they’re here for you and you can refer to them
when you need.
148
Your Own Plays
^^ Ask someone.
^^ Bring them together.
^^ Describe something.
^^ Go the long way around.
^^ Play with the rules.
^^ Say where.
^^ Try something.
^^ Turn to someone else.
^^ Ask someone:
Whenever you’re curious about something, anything at all, ask.
“Harebrake, where are you while this is going on?” “Teapot Girl, do
you notice that Jill Cowdery is gone?” “Tip, just out of curiosity, what’s
your position on the River Queen right now?”
^^ Bring them together:
Choose any two or more characters, either the players’ characters or
your NPCs, and announce that they’re in the same place. If you’d like,
you can include a quick explanation of how they came to be together,
but you needn’t.
“Timothy Bones, Teapot Girl, the two of you happen to be eating
lunch together.” “You’re all in the River Queen’s audience chamber.
She’s not here, but her steward, a willow-nymph called Rill, is.” “All of
you except Tip meet back at your parked wagons.”
^^ Describe something:
Say what it’s like. Use color, texture, mood, theme, simile, allusion,
hyperbole — any and every descriptive technique you can muster.
“The frozen waterfall is genuinely majestic, a wall of ice a hundred feet
high. It almost looks like marble, it has that translucent whiteness.
But it’s not still, it’s under tremendous pressure, you can almost hear it
groaning from the water pent up behind it.”
“The Wolf King of Winter is the kind of older man who always likes
to go around with two or three dangerous young friends. This, his
retainer, is one of those dangerous young friends.”
“The hollow tree goblin looks like a cross between a squirrel and a bat.
It looks at you first from this eye, then from this eyes, then this eye
again, like it just cannot credit how inconvenient you are.”
149
^^ Go the long way around:
Instead of going straight to the point, circle it, draw it out, sneak up on
it, let it wait. Wander a bit and come back to it when you’re ready.
“Actually before I answer, let me tell you about the River Queen’s
winter palace…” “He’s taken aback, Before I tell you how he reacts,
Jill Cowdery, let me tell you how it looks from your point of view…”
“Before you get there, let me tell you what you’ve heard about the
history between the River Queen and the Wolf King of Winter…”
^^ Play with the rules:

You can play directly with the game’s rules, dice, and systems:
• Tell someone they’re wounded, shocked, affronted, or dismayed, or else
have an NPC be wounded, shocked, affronted or dismayed.
• Tell someone to step toward Winter or toward Summer. (Or toward Bold,
Free, Careful, or the corresponding, for mortal human characters.)
• Throw someone between worlds, or all the way into the other world. It can
be a player’s character — in which case, your next play is to say where —
or an NPC.
• Turn someone's play back on them, meaning that whoever they were
trying to play, plays them instead.
• Give someone +1 or -1 to the next play they roll, or to the next time they
roll a certain play, which you name.
• Change someone's form, their seeming, or both, a player’s character’s or
an NPC’s.
• When a player misses a play, have them take the 7–9 result instead of the
miss result, but also step toward winter.
These are often especially appropriate when someone misses one of
their plays, but you can do them whenever you want or need.
“Tip, you find that instead of drawing him out, he’s able to keep
you talking and you’re revealing more and more. He’s turning your
play back on you. Let’s see: Where are you open to him, where are you
vulnerable, and where are you guarded?” “Harebrake, the mood you’re
in, next time you waylay someone, take +1 to the roll.” “Actually Jill, go
ahead and take the 7–9 result, but step toward careful too.”
150
^^ Say where:
Whenever anything happens or anyone ever does anything, always
begin by saying where it happens.
“Rill, the River Queen’s steward, meets you in the palace courtyard…”
“Teapot Girl, you’re in Timothy Bones’ wagon…” “Tip, when you go
out to the Wolf King of Winter’s pavilion, he’s waiting for you…”
^^ Try something:
As Mistress of Ceremonies, you’re not a storyteller, exactly, because
you’re telling the story all together, but still, you can use any
storytelling technique you think to try.
It’s appropriate to ask the other players to go along with you, rather
than imposing on the game without their assent.
“Hey, how about a flashback? Jill, let’s go back to the moment you first
learned about the circus. Where are you?” “The Wolf King of Winter
and the River Queen are going to fall into an argument here. Tip,
would you play the Wolf King for a minute so I don’t have to have an
argument with myself?” “Okay, it sounds like you’ve got a solid plan.
Rather than playing it out in detail, how about a montage?”
^^ Turn to someone else:
One of your duties as Mistress of Ceremonies is to make sure that
everybody gets to play.
The general rule is, it’s okay to let the same player make two plays in
a row, but if they’re about to make a third, turn to someone else and
come back to them after.
“Hold that thought, Harebrake. Tip, you’re still in the kitchen…” “Jill,
where are you now?” “Timothy Bones, last I knew you were going to
ask an audience from the River Queen. She can meet with you now if
you like…”
151
Your NPCs’ Plays
^^ To approach.
^^ To assail someone.
^^ To draw closer.
^^ To gang together.
^^ To get to work.
^^ To give way.
^^ To open up to someone.
^^ To proclaim something.
^^ To stand on hospitality.
^^ To step up.
Ganged together:
^^ To close ranks.
^^ To enact a plan.
^^ To fracture & split.
To make one of your NPC’s plays, say what they do. You can name
their play explicitly or describe it without naming it, as you like.
Examples:
To approach: “When you look up, the Wolf King’s menacing retainer
is standing nearby, in that casual way that predators have. You can tell she’s
considering drawing closer.” To give way: “The River Queen’s steward, Rill,
throws up her hands. ‘Do what you like, then,’ she says, and turns to go.”
To proclaim something: “The hollow tree goblin stamps its feet and points a
trembling, outraged finger right at your face. ‘Cursed! Cursed! Cuuuursed!’”
To stand on hospitality: “No, she’s going to stand on hospitality. She doesn’t
say anything, but if you press her further, you can tell she’s going to take it
as an insult.”
When your NPCs gang together, they act in unison. To close ranks:
“You ask around discreetly, but no, none of the River Queen’s court is
willing to go behind her back for you.” To enact a plan: “Come to discover,
while the Wolf King’s one menacing young retainer was approaching
you, the other two were circling around. Now they’ve got you flanked.”
To fracture & split: “Oh, Jill, no — the instant your iron nail comes out,
they fracture and split. They scatter and a run, and if one of them gets left
behind, the others never stop to look back.”
152
Common & special plays:
Most NPCs also have two plays common to their kind, and a special
play for their role in the occasion. To make these plays, the same: say what
the NPC does, naming their play explicitly or just describing them doing it.
Examples:
In the Breaking of the Ice, say that you’ve written the River Queen up
as river-kind, so her common plays are to drown someone and to whisper
to someone. Her role is the fairy crown of the river, so her special play is to
withdraw hospitality.
Her court are nymph-kind, willow nymphs, so their common plays are
to admonish and to endure, while their special play as her court is to make a
welcome or an introduction.
Say that you’ve written the Wolf King of Winter up as fairy nobility,
so his common plays are to fall in love and to impose his will. His role is a
visiting fairy crown of winter, so his special play is to fight. (When Tip the
Lantern Jack goes to meet him in his pavilion outside the River Queen’s
winter palace, which play will he make?)
His retainers, his three menacing young friends, are winter-kind, so
their common plays are to bide their time and to corner, press, or encircle
someone. As his retainers, their special play is to fight as well.
Your Places’ Plays

^^ To close against someone.
^^ To close around someone.
^^ To draw someone in.
^^ To listen to someone.
^^ To open up.
^^ To rouse itself.
^^ To whisper to someone.
To make one of your place’s plays, you can name it explicitly or simply
describe it happening.
Examples:
153
Your Plays’ Consequences
While you don’t roll dice for your plays, or work through a written
sequence of decisions like the circus players do for theirs, your plays have
the same range of consequence theirs do.
As a result of your plays, people can be insulted, beholden, wounded,
shocked, affronted, dismayed, and even beloved. Refer back to Chapter 2:
Plays & Consequences, for full details.
154
Chapter 6:
Occasions: Places to Perform
& Audiences to Perform For
Rules
To prep for a session, write up an occasion for the circus to perform:
^^ Choose an occasion.
^^ Follow its rules to write it up.
^^ Write up its NPCs, following the rules in Chapter 8: The Mistress of
Ceremonies’ Characters (NPCs).
^^ Plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
155
֍
Occasions
֍
T o prepare a place for the circus to perform and an

audience for them to perform before, choose an occasion and follow its
rules to write it up.
In Fairyland:
^^ A Betrothing:
A celebration of love; or failing that, a celebration of commitment;
or failing that, a celebration of supplication; or failing even that, a
celebration of subjugation. Still, when love goes crowned, even we, the
cynic, the wounded, the enraged, the disloyal, may tip our heads.
^^ The Breaking of the Ice:
An undamming from winter of spring’s flood. An unchaining from the
ice of long-held heart and long-held tongue. Stand back, stand back.
^^ A Celebration of the Hunt:
There are shadows of antlers clashing in the firelight on the walls of
the hall, while the wind sounds the course outside. When fairies hunt,
we who leap with hares, race the deer, dance with goats and swans —
we who sometimes ourselves go antler-crowned — who will be our
prey?
^^ A Closed Bridge:
When we don’t reach our destination, it may be our own failure. We
set out unprepared, irresolute, misguided or mistaken. It may be,
though, instead, a failure of the road.
A bridge makes a road passable, and vulnerable.
^^ A Funeral:
When a jolly elfin gentlewoman dies, you may catch her, if you are
quick and she is forgetful, singing sad drunken songs at her own wake.
When John of the Barley dies, we may weep, but you know that in
the spring he’ll be reborn. The moon dies every month, on the month.
Still, each death is a death, and if each is not lasting, we are mistaken
to think each untrue.
156
^^ A Gift-Giving Occasion:
There is no more cruel, no more implacable, no more bloody-minded
creature under the sun, under the moon, or under the Hollow Hills,
than a fairy set on gift-giving. Do not accept or you will be trapped.
Do not demur or you offer an insult. Give no gift in return and you’re
mean; give a gift in return and now we must weigh them. Whose is
more golden? Whose is more silver? Whose is lighter, whose heavier,
whose more lovely, whose more wonderful, whose more absurd, whose
more poetic, whose more practical, whose is better? Whose is better?
When you see an elf hopping toward you with a present in hand, flee,
or else get straight to the killing.
^^ The Goblin Market:
Under the crooked moon at half-past fall, wear a sprig of willowbud
in your hat and hold a fern’s seed under your tongue. Hop on one
foot, backwards, down to the crossroad at Twitten’s Post, whistle like
a montebank-bird and blink three times. Turn around quick, and you
might catch a glimpse of the Goblin Market.
Bring a silver penny, a wooden nickel, and a brass pin, and maybe you
can buy back your dignity.
^^ A Harvest Murder:
The fairy seasons spin round sunwise, same as yours but more so, or
less so, or sometimes out of order and without regard for precedent,
or forgetfully, when the cold blast of winter oversteps its cue and
balmy summer departs in an offended huff while autumn stares
dumbfounded at winter’s audacity. In spring we hoe in the harvest
mow, same as you, but in fairyland there’s no certainty from year to
year which will come first.
So, as a matter of policy, fairies harvest when they think to do it. Who
knows when we’ll have another chance!
^^ The Horrible Feast:
It’s the horrible feast, friend. Do you need to see the menu to know
what it is?
^^ Freeform Occasions:
There are more occasions in your imagination than there are days to
celebrate them in.
157
In the Mortal Human World:
^^ An Arts Festival:
Some say that when a human being sings a song or makes a chair, they
do it with a spark of mortal creativity, true creativity born of mortal
things’ impending death, which fairies, lacking death, lack and crave.
Some say that when a fairy creature sings a song or makes a chair, they
do it with a mastery and magical skills surpassing all mortality, which
human beings, being mortal, lack and crave.
We meet, let’s agree, in our admiration of what we don’t have.
^^ Lost in the Woods:
It isn’t human nature to become lost in woods. The woods are your
home, and those of you who haven’t abandoned them, know them well.
The mortal woods, that is; the woods of the mortal human world.
Our woods, fairy woods, aren’t your home, they’re our home. We
bring them with us where we go. They aren’t familiar to you and in
them, you’re not safe.
^^ A Rite of Passage:
At turning points in your lives, it’s traditional for human beings
to come together, recognize them, exchange blessings and advice,
sometimes gifts, sometimes to celebrate, and often to make wishes.
You forget it, but there is power and beauty in a wish.
^^ A Thinning of the Veil:
We think we’re separate things, human beings and fairies. We’re not.
We’re each other.
Anywhere:
^^ We Are Ourselves the Occasion:
Do you think us a birthday magician, O Fairy Majesty? A garden
party ensemble, some troupe of poor hired players to duck and bob
and confine ourselves to your small will? No! Do we respect your
august birthday, your celebrated ice-breaking, the grand occasion of
the bathing of your royal feet? We do not! We go where we go, and we
perform when we perform, and you find us or you go without.
Now we are here, and now we perform. Attend the Hob: Come great,
come small, come revelers all! Step up, step up!
158
֍
In Fairyland: A Betrothing
֍
T o create the story of the Betrothing, choose as many

facts and elements as you want, and summarize them in a few sentences.
Write up your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
The Betrotheds:
^^ An easy choice: They’re lovers celebrating their love. Write them up as
any combination of Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Homely-kind, Pastoral-
kind, Nymph-kind, River-kind, Twilight-kind, Wild-kind, or any
other kind you choose; their special play is to stand together.
^^ The betrotheds are, as they say, star-crossed. They must not love each
other, but why? Write them up as any combination of Fairy Nobility,
Mortal Human Kind, River-kind, Twilight-kind, Wild-kind, Winter-
kind, or any other kind you choose; their special play is to stand
together when they must not.
^^ The betrothing is a trap. Write one betrothed up as a cruel Fairy
Noble, Giant-kind, Goblin-kind, River-kind, Spider-kind, Troll-kind,
Twilight-kind, or Winter-kind; their special play is to keep a poker
face. Write the other up as hapless Elfin-kind, Homely-kind, Mortal
Human Kind, Nymph-kind, Pastoral-kind, Sea-kind, or Wild-kind;
their special play is to go willingly forward.
^^ They’re elves conducting a mock-wedding. Write them up as Elfin-
kind; their special play is to forget who it is that they're supposed to
marry.
^^ They’re marrying as a matter of political alliance. Will love blossom
between them? Write them up as Fairy Nobility, or Fairy Crowns of
other kinds; their special play is to stand together.
^^ A mortal human being and a fairy are in love. Write the former up
as Mortal Human Kind, and the latter as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility,
Nymph-kind, River-kind, Sea-kind, Twilight-kind, and/or Wild-kind;
their special play is to stand together.
159
^^ A witch, giant, ogre, or cruel fairy crown is seizing the power of a
great natural force, by binding it in lovers’ oaths. Write the former
up as Fairy Nobility, Giant-kind, Twilight-kind, or Witch-kind; their
special play is to tighten chains. Write the latter up as World-kind;
their special play is to constrain themself.
Friends, Rivals, & Witnesses:

^^ An easy choice: The betrotheds’ friends and loved ones are here to
celebrate with them. Write them up as you choose; their special play is
to cheer and toast their approval.
^^ The betrotheds have seconds, whose duty it is to see the betrothing
through. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to compel
their primaries to stand.
^^ The betrothing centers one of the betrothed’s parents, guardians,
warders, or liege, who must or will oversee the relationship. Write
them up as you choose; their special play is to break off the betrothing.
^^ The betrothing requires a ceremonial officiant. Write them up as you
choose; their special play is to make demands of the betrotheds and
celebrants, symbolic or substantial.
^^ The betrothing will cruelly break a previous commitment of one of the
betrotheds. Write up the bereft party as you choose; their special play
is to plead their case.
^^ One of the betrotheds has a loved one who is against the match. Write
them up as you choose; their special play is to come around.
^^ One of the betrotheds has a loved one who is dead-set against the
match. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to refuse to
come around.
^^ One of the betrotheds has a rival for their love. Write them up as you
choose; their special play is to make one last try.
^^ One of the bethrotheds, their friends and loved ones are not welcome
to the betrothing, and are outside, denied entrance. Write them up as
you choose; their special play is to assail the gates (whatever form the
gates may take).
^^ One of the betrotheds was a great one for love, and has many grieving
exes in attendance. Write them up as you choose; their special play is
to sigh, weep, or wail.
160
The Order of Events:
1. Ingathering.
The celebrants assemble, greet one another appropriately, and take
their places for the betrothing to begin.
2. The beginning of the betrothing.
The betrotheds present themselves, or are presented to the celebrants.
The celebrants greet them with cheers, with sighs, with silence, or by encir-
cling them.
3. The declaration of the betrothing.
Who declares it? What does it entail, and what are its bounds?
4. The solemnization of the betrothing.
Silence and attention for the commitment of the partners to their
betrothal, and for their first act as partners.
5. The celebration of the betrothing.
A collective celebration of the partners in their new role together. Is
there feasting, dancing, singing, an extended celebration?
6. Clean-up & afterward.
Someone has clear away the feast, reorder the hall, pay the musicians,
see the inebriated safely on their way. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the betrothing careening off-
outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially to lastingly ruin the partners’
and their loved ones’ lives. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as
players, to prevent this from happening.
The Ceremony:
^^ An easy choice: The ceremony is simple: the betrotheds declare their
love and commitment before their assembled loved ones, and all
celebrate. Imagery:
^^ The ceremony is baroque and complex, with prescribed words, actions,
procedures, observances, and rituals, overseen by duly bonded experts
in the material.
^^ The ceremony is profound, metaphorical, mythical, with symbolic
effigies and portentious acts, invoking powers and mysteries beyond
the mere betrotheds and celebrants.
^^ The ceremony is sere and formal, unemotional, strict or perfunctory.
161
The Circus:
At the beginning of the session, ask or tell the circus how they came to
be here, and what they should therefore expect for their performance.
^^ An easy choice: The circus was invited here by the betrotheds to
celebrate the betrothing and entertain the guests.
^^ The circus is here to conduct, officiate, and solemnize the betrothing.
^^ The circus is here to bless the betrothing.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the betrothing, and why? At whose
word?
^^ The circus has a personal connection to one of the betrotheds, a past
performer, a patron of the circus, or a personal friend.
^^ One of the betrotheds is, in fact, an NPC performer in the circus.
^^ Conceivably, one of the betrotheds is a player’s character, but this
would be their choice, not yours as MC.
^^ The circus is here for no reason, just fate or happenstance. This is the
road the circus was on.
Who is the circus inconveniencing?
The Moment of the Circus’ Arrival:
^^ The circus arrives in time for the proceedings to begin.
^^ The proceedings can’t begin until the circus arrives, but the circus is
behind time. Now that it’s arrived, they can begin.
^^ When the circus arrives, the proceedings have already begun. Which
events has the circus missed, and which event is currently underway?
Who greets the circus, and how do they play it?
The Season:
Consider what the betrothing means, and choose a seasonal transition
to stand for it. Spring to Summer? Winter to Spring? Winter to Deep
Winter? Mud Season to Summer’s Eve?
162
Additional Imagery:
^^ Draw a map if you like.
^^ A dramatic sunrise, a dramatic sunset, a beautiful waxing moon, a
magnificent full moon, a high blue sky, a gloomy sky, rain, a flowery
meadow, a flowery bower, a public square, a private chapel, a great old
tree, a threshold to cross, —
^^ Festive clothing, fine clothing, formal clothing, simple robes, elaborate
robes, magnificent gowns, casual clothing, bare feet, bare heads, bare
skin, ribbons, jewels, cloth bindings, chains, keys, coronets, rings,
shoes, an elaborate document, something to exchange, something to
break, —
^^ A shared cup, a shared plate, a shared bowl, an artful formal meal, a
grand formal meal, an easy bountiful spread, a meal poor and mean,
a meal poor but loving, a meal poor but brave, tapped kegs, popped
corks, opened jars, unstopped crocks, a passed bowl and just a sip, —
^^ Giddy dancing, giddy brawling, drunken cavorting, somber dancing,
formal dancing, rehearsed dances, contests of art, contests of song,
strictly proscribed behavior, gifts of wisdom, gifts of advice, gifts of
good wishes, gifts of practical goods, extravagant gifts, —
To play the Betrothing:

1. Establish with the circus the place of this performance in their tour.
What was their last show, and what’s their next planned show?
2. Tell the circus where they are right now, who’s there, and what’s
happening as they arrive. Make your first play. Ask the circus their
plays in response. You’re off!
3. Help the circus follow their outline for planning and putting on their
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Betrothing’s order of events,
or try to derail them, as suitable.
4. After the circus’ show, resolve any outstanding questions and tie up
any loose ends.
Did the betrothal go forward after all?
5. To end the session, remind the circus what they planned for their
next show, and ask them if that’s where they’re still going to go. Ask
them to reflect on the show and step toward summer or winter, and
schedule a next session, if you’re going to play again.
163
֍
In Fairyland: The Breaking of the Ice
֍
T o create the story of the Breaking of the Ice, choose

as many facts and elements as you want, and summarize them in a few
sentences. Write up your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
The Season:
The Breaking of the Ice celebrates the transition from Deep Winter to
First Thaw. It is the moment when a great ice dam cracks, and releases the
flood of coming Spring.
The Water:
^^ An easy answer: The fairy crown of the river, host of the celebration.
Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as River-kind; their special play is
to withdraw hospitality. Write their court up as Nymph-kind or River-
kind; their special play is to make a welcome or an introduction.
^^ The fairy crown of the river, but they’re in love with winter. Write
them up as Fairy Nobility or as River-kind; their special play is to
withdraw hospitality. Write their court up as Nymph-kind or River-
kind; their special play is to make a welcome or an introduction.
^^ The fairy crown of the river, but they’re winter’s hostage. Write them
up as Fairy Nobility or as River-kind; their special play is to withdraw
hospitality. Write their court up as Nymph-kind or River-kind; their
special play is to make a welcome or an introduction.
^^ The birds and wild things of the river and riverside. Write them up as
Wild-kind; their special play is to leap, dance, fight and fly.
^^ The flood. Write it up as Giant-kind or as World-kind; its special play
is to shake its chains.
^^ A prisoner, bodily trapped in the ice. Write them up as Fairy Nobility,
Ghostly Kind, or Giant-kind; their special play is to reveal themselves.
^^ The river itself. Write it up as World-kind; its special play is to dream
in its icy sleep.
^^ The riverside woods. Write them up as Tree-kind; their special play is
to waken and stir.
164
The Winter:
^^ An easy answer: A visiting fairy crown of winter, facing the end of
their welcome here. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as Winter-
kind; their special play is to fight. Write their retainers up as
Winter-kind; their special play is to fight as well.
^^ A visiting fairy crown of winter, in love with the water, facing the end
of their affair. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as Winter-kind;
their special play is to fight. Write their retainers up as Winter-kind;
their special play is to fight as well.
^^ A visiting fairy crown of winter, prisoner of the water, unable to
depart and allow spring to come. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or
as Winter-kind; their special play is to fight. Write their retainers up
as Winter-kind; their special play is to fight as well.
^^ An ice giant, literally damming the river with its body or holding the
dam in place with its shoulder. Write it up as Giant-kind; its special
play is to stand enduring.
^^ Winter itself. Write it up as World-kind; its special play is to press
down hard and unrelenting.
^^ A Winter-witch or Winter-wizard. Write them up as Witch-kind or
as Wizard-kind; their special play is to hold spring hostage.
Who Else, If Any?

^^ The fairies of the countryside, waiting for an end to winter. Write
them up as Elfin-kind, Pastoral-kind, Nymph-kind, or Wild-kind;
their special play is to celebrate.
^^ A figure of the spring, who comes along with the flood. Write them up
as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Wild-kind, or World-kind; their special
play is to unveil themself.
^^ A figure of the sun, whose work the Breaking of the Ice is. Write them
up as Fairy Nobility or as World-kind; their special play is to bow
down.
^^ A sacrifice, who must give themself or be given to the ice or to the
flood. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Mortal Human
Kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is to set a condition.
165
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus was invited here to celebrate the Breaking
of the Ice and the coming of spring.
^^ The circus is here to reinforce winter or celebrate winter’s remain.
^^ The circus is here to break winter’s hold and speed the Breaking of the
Ice.
Additional Imagery:
^^ Frozen lake, frozen river, frozen waterfall, frozen land, drifting snow,
ice-sparkling bare trees, ice-sparkling air, dim pale sun, gray-blue sky,
sun low on the horizon, skin-cutting winds, swirling snow, sharp
ice edges, snow-blindness, sundogs, a crystalline circled moon, dead
branches, —
^^ Warm winter robes, soft capes and coats, deep hoods, heavy woolens,
snow hats, snow boots, snow shoes, scarves, mufflers, jackets stuffed
with rags, —
^^ Smoky timber hall, cold stone palace, snow-buried garden, snow-
drifted road, pavilions in the snow, a great bonfire, small fires, fireless
chill, —
166
1. Assembly and waiting.
The celebrants arrive and greet each other. No one knows the moment
the ice will break, so this is a period of waiting, watching, speculating,
hoping, and mixed attention and leisure. Loud noises or impacts might set
the process off, so the celebration might encourage or prohibit them..
2. The first crack.
A loud, sharp crack signals the moment when force of the pent-up
water finally overpowers its damming ice. The process is underway and the
celebrants must assemble quickly.
3. Shattering and collapse.
The damming ice can’t hold for long and there’s no turning back.
4. The loosing of the flood.
With a roar, the pent-up water is fully freed. It’ll settle to its flow, but
for now it gouts forth.
5. The celebration of the thaw.
The thaw accomplished, the celebrants can turn to celebrating it.
Someone has to clear away the remnants of the celebration, sweep and
wash, see the inebriated safely on their way. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Breaking of the Ice
careening off-outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially plunge all into
the killing depths of winter or the flood. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’
job as players, to prevent this from happening.

167
To play the Breaking of the Ice:
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Breaking of the Ice’s order of
events, or try to derail them, as suitable.
any loose ends.
Did the ice break after all?
168
֍
In Fairyland: The Celebration of the Hunt
֍
T o create the story of the Celebration of the Hunt,

choose as many facts and elements as you want, and summarize them in a
few sentences. Write up your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’
arrival.
The Celebration:
^^ The celebration is a literal hunt, carried out between real hunters and
real quarry.
^^ The celebration is a ritual reenactment of a hunt, with some celebrants
playing the role of hunter and some playing the role of quarry.
^^ The celebration is a reversal, with prey celebrating (and wishing for) a
failed hunt.
The Hunt:
^^ An easy choice: Predators hunting pray. Write the hunters up as Fairy
Nobility, Goblin-kind, Wild-kind, or Winter-kind; their special play
is to course the quarry. Write the quarry up as Sea-kind or Wild-kind;
their special play is to defy the hunt.
^^ A border-patrol, soldiers hunting their enemy. Write the hunters up as
Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Pastoral-kind, or Winter-kind; their special
play is to course the quarry. Write the quarry up as enemy Elfin-kind
or Fairy Nobility, or as Giant-kind, Goblin-kind, Troll-kind, Twilight-
kind, or Witch-kind; their special play is to defy the hunt.
^^ Elves hunting the moon or some other absurd quarry. Write the
hunters up as Elfin-kind; their special play is to set boldly out, again
and again. Write the quarry up as World-kind, or as you choose; its
special play is to defy the hunt.
^^ Elves parodying a hunt. Write both the hunters and the quarry up
as Elfin-kind; their special play is to forget whether they're hunter or
quarry.
169
^^ A metaphor: a scholar hunting truth, a lover hunting love, a poet
hunting inspiration. Write the hunters up as Elfin-kind, Fairy
Nobility, Nymph-kind, or Pastoral-kind; their special play is to course
the quarry. Write the quarry up as Elfin-kind, Ghostly-kind, Spider-
kind, Tree-kind, Twilight-kind, or World-kind; its special play is to
defy the hunt.
^^ A mortal human being who has stumbled into fairyland, hunted by
fairies. Write the hunters up as Fairy Nobility, Ghostly-kind, Giant-
kind, Goblin-kind, River-kind, Spider-kind, Troll-kind, Wild-kind,
Winter-kind, or Witch-kind; their special play is to course their
quarry. Write the quarry up as Mortal Human Kind; their special
play is to fight for their life (which fairies rarely must).
^^ A mortal human being who is unknowingly hunting a fairy, and has
followed it into fairyland. Write the hunter up as Mortal Human
Kind; their special play is to suddenly realize. Write the quarry up as
Sea-kind or Wild-kind; their special play is to defy the hunt.
The Season:
Consider what the hunt means and what its success would mean, and
choose a seasonal transition to stand for it. Autumn to Winter? Autumn to
Lingering Autumn? Winter to Spring? Summer to Winter?
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus was invited here to peform in celebration of
the hunt.
^^ The circus is here to be hunted as quarry.
^^ The circus is here to cheer and speed the hunters.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the hunt and spare the quarry.
^^ The circus is here to join the hunt as hunters.
^^ The circus is here to provide cover for the hunters.
170
Individual Hunters:
^^ The beaters, whose duty is to press forward obnoxiously through the
hunting ground, to start the quarry. Write them up as you choose;
their special play is to become entangled with the hunters.
^^ The butcher, whose duty is to dress the quarry’s body for cooking and
eating. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to steal the
best.
^^ The keener, whose duty is to praise and mourn the quarry when it has
been killed. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to paper
over holes.
^^ The master of arms, whose duty is to see to the bows, arrows, lances,
knives, hooks, nets, and other instruments of violence. Write them up
as you choose; their special play is to take poor care.
^^ The master of hounds, and the hounds. Write them up as you choose.
The master’s special play is to assemble, release, and recall the hounds.
The hounds’ special play is to course the quarry.
^^ The most accomplished hunter, swift, sure, fleet of foot. Write them
up as you choose; their special play is to bungle something.
^^ The most cruel hunter, who loves the moment of killing. Write them
up as you choose; their special play is to reveal their own heart.
^^ The most experienced hunter, slower, more careful, less certain. Write
them up as you choose; their special play is to stay someone back.
^^ The shape-shifter, whose duty it is to become like the quarry, and so
predict or enact its course. Write them up as you choose; their special
play is to lose themself.
The Quarry’s Allies:

^^ The calling bird, who cries the quarry to flee before the hunters come
near. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to warn away.
^^ The flicker in the forest, an illusion, a sprite, a green man, a friend to
the quarry or an enemy to the hunters. Write them up as you choose;
their special play is to turn the hunt upon itself.
^^ A guardian of the quarry. Write them up as you choose; their special
play is to assail the hunt.
^^ The stillness of the forest. Write it up as Tree-kind; its special play is
to hide the quarry.
171
1. Ingathering & planning.
The celebrants assemble, ready themselves and their tools, and learn
their roles in the literal or symbolic hunt to come.
2. Setting out.
The celebrants depart their own accustomed landscape and enter into
the hunting ground.
3. The hunt.
Sighting, flushing, starting, coursing, pursuing, and finally bringing
the hunt to the cast, the flight, the bite, or the thrust.
The hunt might repeat and repeat this step many times, unsuccessfully,
before it succeeds and can proceed.
4. The moment of the hunt, when one living thing seizes the life of
another.
5. The celebration of the hunt.
Mourning the live thing, acclaiming the dead thing, praising the
hunters, sharing the first cuts, feasting.
Someone has to re-order the tools, dress the rest of the carcass, rinse
away the blood. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Celebration of the Hunt
careening off-outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially to spoil the hunt
altogether. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as players, to prevent
this from happening.
172
Additional Imagery:
^^ Overshadowed forest, calling forest, tended forest, trackless forest,
high bluffs, craggy mountains, cleft valley, falling water, brooks and
pools, deepening wetlands, placid blue depths, ice-tossed gray seas,
mountainous waves, surging wind, racing wind, rattling wind, the
verge between woods and meadow, the verge between woods and
cleared land, —
^^ Clap-sticks and bull-roarers, cross-braced lances, arrows fletched with
ravens’ quills or swans’, short sturdy-backed hunting swords, blood-
bathed muzzle, wild rolling eyes, the shadows of antlers upon the wall,
a stately pace, a light tapping rhythm, the calls of voices, long boats,
hide boats, nets, hooks, spears, harpoons, —
^^ A hunting lodge, a stone tower, a blind in the woods, a narrow track,
hide tents, a hewn log bridge, a timber hall, a stone hall, —
To play the Celebration of the Hunt:

show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Celebration of the Hunt’s
order of events, or try to derail them, as suitable.
any loose ends.
Did the hunters prevail, or the quarry?
173
֍
In Fairyland: A Closed Bridge
֍
T o create the story of a Closed Bridge, choose as many

The Bridge:
^^ An easy option: The bridge crossing the river from this fairy realm to
the next, but it’s half-collapsed and dangerous to cross over.
^^ The bridge crossing the river from this fairy realm to the next, but
a troll has taken residence under it, and is throwing everyone and
everything that tries to cross down into the riverine chasm. Write
them up as Troll-kind; their special play is to defy all assault.
^^ The drawbridge to the manor and estate of a fairy crown, raised for
some past defense, but though the danger’s now long past, the fairy
crown will not lower it again. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as a
crown of another fairy kind; their special play is to cling to their fears.
^^ A common bridge through a placid orchard, upon which a triumvirate
of enterprising fairies have erected a toll-gate, and their tolls are
breathtakingly exorbitant. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind,
or a mix; their special play is to squabble.
^^ A bridge over a woodland ravine, erected without the permission of
the trees. Though it has stood open for fairy centuries, and is bowed
from use and green with moss, the trees have at last elected to close
it. A sentry oak has taken position now to rebuff traffic, while a labor
crew of spruce work to tip it off its foundations. Write them up as
Tree-kind; the sentry oak’s special play is to insist, and the spruce
crew’s special play is to ponder the problem.
^^ The bridge spanning the horizons east to west, over which the sun
takes each day’s stroll, but damaged by the shoulder of a passing giant.
Now the sun stands at the edge of the breach, looking glumly down.
Write the sun up as World-kind; its special play is to hold up the traffic
of the skies. Write the giant up as Giant-kind, if it’s still nearby; its
special play is to deny culpability.
174
Travelers Brought to a Halt:
^^ A beeherd leading their flock to market. Write them up as Elfin-kind
or as Pastoral-kind; their special play is to whistle up their bees. Write
the bees up as Wild-kind; their special play is to swarm after whom
they choose.
^^ A company of fairy soldiers under the flag of a fairy crown, impatient
to proceed on the march. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind,
Wild-kind, or Winter-kind; their special play is to abandon discipline.
^^ A crew of elves trying to take charge and organize the halted travelers.
Write them up as Elfin-kind; their special play is to muddle things.
^^ A crew of elves trying to reopen the bridge. Write them up as Elfin-
kind; their special play is to exacerbate the problem.
^^ Fairies moving house, with all their household goods in a wagon and
no place they can return. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility,
or Pastoral-kind; their special play is to unpack their kitchen and make
a hospitable camp.
^^ A fairy crown traveling in state with retinue and wardrobe. Write the
fairy crown up as Fairy Nobility or as the crown of another fairy kind;
their special play is to impose on someone. Write their retinue up as
you choose; their special play is to abandon their duties.
^^ A fairy noble traveling incognito. Write them up as Fairy Nobility
or as a noble of another fairy kind; their special play is to reveal
themselves.
^^ Goblin merchants with a cartload of quick-spoiling produce: golden
pears, each one blush-perfect, ripe, and so delicate that they’ll be
bruised by a hard word or a sharp look. This delay imperils their
livelihood. Write them up as Goblin-kind; their special play is to howl
their misfortune.
^^ A hunter, prowling along the edges of the road, preying on those who
wander. Write them up as Goblin-kind, River-kind, Spider-kind,
Troll-kind, Twilight-kind, Wild-kind, Winter-kind, or Witch-kind.
Their special play is to spring upon someone.
^^ Traveling musicians, eyeing the circus as rivals. Write them up
as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind, Nymph-kind, River-kind, Tree-kind,
Twilight-kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is to perform
beautifully, or to perform terribly.
175
^^ A traveling scribe, writing letters for who needs them. Write them up
as Elfin-kind, Nymph-kind, or Twilight-kind; their special play is to
offer their service.
^^ A wanderer. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Ghostly-kind, Goblin-kind,
Troll-kind, Twilight-kind, Wild-kind, or Winter-kind; their special
play is to shrug and go another way.
Additional Imagery:
^^ A narrow switchback road, a twin-rut road, a wide road set with
milestones, a sunken road overarched with trees, a wandering road
like a deer path, a buttressed road on a steep hillside, a banked road
alongside the river, a cliffside road with a stout railing, a cliffside road
with no railing though it clearly requires one, a cliffside road with a
railing so flimsy the birds don’t dare perch on it.
^^ A roadside house on the near side of the bridge, already overbooked;
a roadside house on the far side of the bridge, looking glumly at
the custom it’s losing; a fairy farmer’s field pressed into service as a
campground, and its disgruntled farmer; a fairy farmer’s field pressed
into service as a campground, and its disgruntled sheep; an eddying
pool in the river, now made a laundry; an eddying pool in the river,
now made a bathtub; an eddying pool in the laundry, where the people
who come to drink dispute with the people who come to wash.
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus must cross the bridge to make it to their
next show.
^^ The circus is here to entertain the travelers brought to a halt, as a
captive audience.
^^ The circus was invited here to solve the problem of the bridge. By
whom?
176
The Season:
Consider what the bridge represents and what’s on the other side, and
choose a seasonal transition to stand for it. Winter to Spring? Spring to
Summer? Deep Winter to First Thaw? Mud Season to Summer’s Eve?
Developments:
During the session, introduce any or all of the following, in any order,
as they occur:
^^ New travelers arrive, crowding up at the rear.
^^ A labor crew arrives, with orders to reopen the bridge. (Whose
orders?) They are brusque and efficient but have none of the required
tools or skills.
^^ A labor crew arrives, with orders to clear the road, closed bridge
irregardless. (Whose orders?) They are brusque and efficient and have
good crabtree sticks for the motivation of stragglers.
^^ The local fairy regent arrives to survey the situation.
^^ A personage dangerously predatory arrives, drawn to the confusion.
^^ The bridge suffers a further misfortune and the halted travelers are
faced with bad news.
^^ The bridge is reopened, but cannot bear many at once, so the halted
travelers must put themselves into an order of precedence in which to
pass over.
^^ Someone arrives with news of approaching disaster: a coming giant or
a terrible storm.
^^ Someone arrives with news of another way, longer and more difficult
going, but at least open.
^^ Someone hatches an implausible plan to reopen the bridge, and tries
to rally support for it.
Note that as developments introduce new NPCs, you may write them up as you
choose.
Which developments has the circus missed, if any, and which might be
coming next?
177
To play the Closed Bridge:
show. Introduce the developments at the Closed Bridge if and as you
choose.
any loose ends.
Is the bridge still closed?
178
֍
In Fairyland: A Funeral
֍
T o create the story of a Funeral, choose as many facts

and elements as you want, and summarize them in a few sentences. Write
up your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
The Honored Dead:
^^ An easy choice: A fairy beloved and respected. Write them up as Fairy
Nobility, Homely-kind, Pastoral-kind, Tree-kind, Wild-kind, or
Winter-kind; their special play is to eavesdrop.
^^ A champion of battle and guardian of their community in war. Write
them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Wild-kind, or Winter-kind;
their special play is to eavesdrop.
^^ An elf, in an elfin mock-funeral, very grave and boisterous. Write
them up as Elfin-kind; their special play is to forget that they're dead.
^^ A figure of hope, peace, wisdom, or abundance, whose death leaves us
impoverished. Write them up as Fairy Nobility, Spider-kind, Tree-
kind, Wild-kind, Witch-kind, or World-kind; their special play is to
truly depart.
^^ A mortal human being whose death we don’t truly understand. Don’t
write them up; they’re dead.
^^ A tyrant, and we’re giddy with joy. Write them up as Fairy Nobility,
River-kind, Troll-kind, or Winter-kind; their special play is to
eavesdrop.
They died (choose all that apply): too soon, in childhood, violently, by
mischance, betrayed, in their prime, in childbirth, with much left undone,
leaving behind old wounds, without saying goodbye, unforgiven, alone, lost, in
battle, and no one’s surprised, having accomplished much, within reach of great
achievement, with great achievement behind them, among their loved ones, in
peace, at the end of a great life, —
179
Mourners:
^^ An easy choice: The true friends and loved ones of the Honored Dead.
Write them up as you choose; their special play is to grieve.
^^ The bereft family. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to
quarrel without wanting to.
^^ The bereft lover or spouse. Write them up as you choose; their special
play is to seek comfort elsewhere.
^^ A confidante, who knew the Honored Dead’s secrets. Write them up
as you choose; their special play is to say too much.
^^ An enemy in life. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to
ill-speak.
^^ A lover unrequited in life. Write them up as you choose; their special
play is to mourn.
^^ A keener or keeners, whose duty is to give voice to the celebrants’ grief.
Write them up as you choose; their special play is to lay bare the other
celebrants' true feelings.
^^ A sacrifice, whose duty is to go with the Honored Dead into death.
Write them up as you choose; their special play is to defy the sacrifice.
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus was invited here to perform in tribute to
the Honored Dead.
^^ The circus is here to conduct, officiate, and solemnize the funeral.
^^ _he circus is here to recount, in performance, episodes from the life of
the Honored Dead.
^^ The circus is here to celebrate the death of the Honored Dead.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the funeral, and why? At whose word?
^^ The circus has a personal connection to the Honored Dead: a past
performer, a patron of the circus, or a personal friend.
^^ Conceivably, the Honored Dead is a player’s character.
180
The Season:
Consider what the funeral means, and choose a seasonal transition to
stand for it. Autumn to Winter? Summer to Autumn? Winter to Spring?
1. Ingathering.
The celebrants assemble, greet one another appropriately, and take
their places for the funeral to begin.
2. The beginning of the funeral.
Presenting, introducing, acknowledging, and/or encircling the
Honored Dead.
3. Remembering the Honored Dead.
Which of the celebrants speak, and what do they say?
4. The moment of goodbye.
Silence and attention for the final moment of the Honored Dead’s
presence among the living.
5. Leaving the Honored Dead behind.
A collective acknowledgement and recognition that life must and does
proceed, with the Honored Dead no longer present in it.
Someone has to clear away the memorial feast, reorder the hall, pay the
hired mourners, see the bereft safely on their way. Everyone else, doesn’t
have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Funeral careening off-
outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially to lastingly ruin some
celebrants’ lives and memories. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as
players, to prevent this from happening.
181
Additional Imagery:
^^ A wide field, a stone hall, a wooded grove, a narrow crescent moon, a
full moon, a moonless night, stormy skies, gloomy skies, rain, sunny
skies, a windy coast, a wide river, a reedy lake, the open sea, a peat bog,
upthrust boulders, an orchard, a promontory, a village green, —
^^ A fairy graveyard, a stone cairn, a crypt, a pyre, a bonfire, a landed
ship, a ship afloat, a ship aflame, a mass grave, a churned battlefield,
standing stones, stone cists, the inverted tree, swords thrust into the
mud, —
^^ A simple shared meal, stately music, a grand feast, toasts and cheers,
rambling reminisces, broached kegs and unstoppered jars, a formal
meal, strictly prescribed stories, songs of death, songs of live and love,
many lies, open weeping, hidden weeping, —
To play the Funeral:

show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Funeral’s order of events, or
try to derail them, as suitable.
any loose ends.
Did the funeral answer the needs of the mourners?
182
֍
In Fairyland: A Gift-Giving Occasion
֍
T o create the story of a Gift-Giving Occasion, choose

The Occasion:
^^ An easy choice: It’s the day of celebration of some fairy crown, and we
assemble to give them gifts. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as the
crown of another fairy kind; their special play is to rebuff a gift.
^^ It’s the day of celebration of some fairy crown, and we assemble to
honor them by receiving gifts from them. Write them up as Fairy
Nobility or as the crown of another fairy kind; their special play is to
withhold a gift.
^^ It’s a day of community celebration, and we assemble to give gifts to
one another, under the auspices of a figure of abundance, generosity,
and wisdom. Write them up as Fairy Nobility, Spider-kind, Tree-
kind, Wild-kind, or World-kind; their special play is to bless those who
participate.
^^ It’s the naming-day of a baby fairy, and we assemble to hear their
name and give them gifts. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind,
Homely-kind, Nymph-kind, Pastoral-kind, or Wild-kind; their special
play is to laugh with delight. Write their parents or guardians up as
you choose; their special play is to weigh a gift critically.
^^ It’s tax day. We assemble to render our share to the fairy crown who
rules us. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as the crown of another
fairy kind; their special play is to demand more or better.
^^ It’s tribute day. We assemble to render our share to the tyrant who
oppresses us. Write them up as Fairy Nobility, Giant-kind, Spider-
kind, Troll-kind, Twilight-kind, Winter-kind, Witch-kind, or
Wizard-kind; their special play is to demand more or better.
183
The Gifts:
^^ Fanciful gifts: birds, animals, concoctions, rich trade goods, elaborate
jewelry, exotic foodstuffs, rarities.
^^ Gifts of expression: songs, art, blessings, carols, compositions,
recitations, performances, luck, foretelling, promises, oaths.
^^ Practical gifts: tools, small jewelry, household items, personal items,
simple trade goods, coin, fruit, yardgoods, ribbons.
^^ Taxes or tribute: coin, livestock, produce, indenture, duties,
commitment to work, conscription to fight.
The Season:
Consider what the Gift-Giving means, and choose a seasonal transition
to stand for it. Mud Season to Summer’s Eve? Winter to Dpring? Summer
to High Summer? Autumn to Winter?
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus is here to give their performance as a gift.
^^ The circus is here by hire, to perform as someone else’s gift. Whose?
^^ The circus is here to render their share in taxes or tribute, subject to
the same crown or tyrant as the rest of us.
Additional Imagery:
^^ A picnic in a garden, a bedecked hall, a timber pavilion by a river,
a bower in the woods, a sandy beach landing, a grand stone hall, a
cold stone hall, a smoky timber hall, a circle fire, a meeting-hall on
a troubled border, a wayside house at a crossroad, a throne room, a
humble cottage, a common green, a yard for tax-collecting, a private
palace, a lovely and festive park, —
^^ Festive clothing, workaday clothing, formal clothing, outlandish
costumes, symbolic costume, ceremonial costume, anonymous
costume, disguises, —
184
1. Ingathering.
The celebrants assemble, makes appropriate introductions among
themselves, and take their places for the Gift-Giving to begin.
2. The First Gift.
Presenting, introducing, acclaiming, and/or encircling the Honoree,
and the giving of the first gift.
3. Giving the Gifts.
Are they given anonymously? Are they wrapped, to be opened later,
or presented for all to see? In what order are they presented, with what
formality, with what pomp?
4. The conclusion of the Gift-Giving.
The giving of the final gift, and the Honoree’s last remarks.
5. Congeniality and Farewells.
Now that the Gift-Giving is accomplished, the celebrants can stay to
pass time together, if it’s appropriate, and depart when the time is right.
Someone has to sweep away the refuse, wash the dishes, tidy the hall,
see things old and new to their proper places. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the gift-giving careening off-
outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially create hard feelings, greed,
jealousy, and ruptures in the celebrants’ lives. It’s not your job as MC, nor the
players’ job as players, to prevent this from happening.

185
To play the Gift-Giving
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Gift-Giving Occasion’s
order of events, or try to derail them, as suitable.
any loose ends.
Were the gifts, after all, given?
186
֍
In Fairyland: The Goblin Market
֍
T o create the story of the Goblin Market, choose

The Crossroads:
Draw on the map:
^^ A road. Choose 1 or more: stone-paved, twin-rutted, high-banked,
hung with banners, “the King’s road,” “the Queen’s road,” “the Wide
Way.”
^^ Another road. Choose 1 or more: narrow, shadowy, wet, overgrown,
deep-worn, “the Witches’ road,” “the Vanishing road,” “the Long Way.”
^^ A river. Choose 1 or more: winding, bridged, tree-lined, sandy-banked,
reedy, stony, quick-flowing, meandering, sluggish, shallow, leaping.
^^ Permanent structures: shops, halls, a public house, a hostlery, a
grange.
^^ A single gigantic all-overtowering tree.
^^ A central green with a raised platform for a stage.
^^ Other: —
Folk in the Market:

^^ A requisite choice: The goblins of the market, sharp-eyed, sharp-eared,
eager for custom, their tables spread with wonders, enticements,
enchantments and dangers. Write them up as Goblin-kind; their
special play is to call and haggle, mill and roar.
^^ One merchant in particular, offering a unique rare good for sale,
namely —. Write them up as Goblin-kind; their special play is to turn
aside the eager.
^^ The bell-ringer, whose duty is to keep time for the market. Write them
up as Goblin-kind; their special play is to drowse off.
187
^^ A captive, a person, not a thing, nevertheless to be bought and sold.
Write them up as Ghostly-kind, Mortal Human Kind, Nymph-kind,
Sea-kind, Tree-kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is to defy the
selling.
^^ A fairy prince, princess, or crown, visiting the market incognito, but
everyone knows who it is. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as
nobility of another fairy kind; their special play is to pretend to be
unrecognized.
^^ A fairy prince, princess, or crown, visiting the market incognito,
successfully. Write them up as Fairy Nobility or as nobility of another
fairy kind; their special play is to quietly reveal themself.
^^ A fortune-teller. Write them up as Sea-kind, Spider-kind, or Witch-
kind; their special play is to offer warnings and lures.
^^ The host of the market, upon whose land the market’s held. Write
them up as Fairy Nobility or as a wealthy landowner of another fairy
kind; their special play is to impose upon the market, just a little.
^^ The Market-Crowned Beauty, the great acclaimed beauty of the
market. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind, Mortal Human
Kind, Nymph-kind, Pastoral-kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is
to break hearts.
^^ A mortal human being, here by art or by accident. Write them up as
Mortal Human Kind; their special play is to fall prey.
^^ The peacekeeper and their bully-gang, armed with crabtree sticks.
Write them up as Goblin-kind, with perhaps a troll among them; their
special play is to give good advice.
^^ The overseer of entertainment & games, whose duties include the
circus. Write them up as Elfin-kind or as Goblin-kind; their special
play is to favor their favorites.
^^ One robbed, someone from whom a treasured belonging has been
stolen. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Goblin-kind,
Mortal Human Kind, Pastoral-kind, Troll-kind, or Wizard-kind;
their special play is to uproar.
^^ The tidy-crew. Write them up as Goblin-kind, their special play is to
“tidy” things that aren’t trash.
^^ A wizard seeking magical goods at a bargain. Write them up as
Wizard-kind; their special play is to haggle ungraciously.
188
Additional Imagery:
^^ A caravan of laden bullfrogs, a beeherd bringing the flock to market,
a little goblin with an enormous jar of milkweed kefir on its back,
sprightly pickpockets, a booming crier, pavilions decked with ribbons,
timber stalls selling roast turnips, quaffs, or kisses, —
^^ Someone’s private business turning suddenly public, someone
signaling a covert partner, someone lurking behind a shop stall,
someone presenting themself as someone else, someone searching the
faces of passers‑by, someone seeking to dissolve a curse, —
^^ Apples & quinces, lemons & oranges, plump unpeck’d cherries,
melons & raspberries, bloom-down-cheek’d peaches, swart-headed
mulberries, wild free-born cranberries, crab-apples, dewberries, pine-
apples, blackberries, apricots, strawberries, grapes fresh from the vine,
pomegranates full and fine, dates & sharp bullaces, rare pears and
greengages, damsons and bilberries, currants and gooseberries, bright-
fire-like barberries, figs to fill your mouth, citrons from the south; gold
on the furze that shakes in windy weather, copper on the heather, a
golden curl, a precious golden lock, a tear more rare than pearl; honey,
cow’s milk, kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, churn’d butter, whipp’d
up cream, a hen’s egg; a silver penny.
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus is here to perform for the crowd.
^^ The circus is here to shop.
^^ The circus is here to sell.
^^ The circus is here to meet someone, a friend, a patron, or a guide.
Who?
The Season:
Consider what the Goblin Market means, and choose a seasonal tran-
sition to stand for it. Mud Season to Summer’s Eve? High Summer to First
Chill? Deep Winter to First Thaw? Lingering Autumn to First Frost?
189
1. Setup.
Before the Goblin Market opens, workers ready the fields and road-
sides, vendors and merchants arrive, they squabble over their assigned lots,
they load their goods into their pavilions, shops and stalls, they step on
each others’ toes and tweak each others’ noses, all in preparation for the
customers to come.
2. The Grand Opening.
Special customers may be let in ahead of the rabble, or sneak in, but
sooner or later, the Goblin Market is open to all.
3. Market Days & Market Nights.
The Goblin Market is open for a week, a day, an hour, a minute, a
second, and a sneeze.
4. The Closing Sneeze.
When someone sneezes the closing sneeze, the Goblin Market is
closed. Customers have only until the vendors and merchants find their
thrashing sticks to depart.
5. Before departing.
Now that the Goblin Market’s closed, the vendors can finish their busi-
ness, count their returns, load out their goods, and celebrate together.
Someone has to undertake the herculean labor of restoring the cross-
roads to order when the market’s gone. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Goblin Market careening
off-outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially ruin the livelihoods of
many or all. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as players, to prevent
190
To play the Goblin Market
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Goblin Market’s order of
any loose ends.
Was the circus’ performance at the Goblin Market, after all, a success?
191
֍
In Fairyland: A Harvest Murder
֍
T o create the story of a Harvest Murder, choose

The Harvest:
^^ An easy choice: Circle 1: barley, apples, grapes, onions, hay, dandelion
blossoms, honey, cabbage, pumpkins, nuts, raspberries, —
^^ Something fanciful: Circle 1: thistledown, spider silk, morning dew,
violets, moonwine, —
^^ Something poetical: The fruit of commitment to an emotion or
vision, like falling in love or choosing hope, for which reluctance and
reservation must die, namely —
^^ Something sinister: Circle 1: nightshade, human children’s dreams,
thorns, human luck or happiness, —
^^ The harvest is an ingathering: a reaping, a mowing, a picking, a
gathering, —
^^ The harvest is a first processing: pressing olives for oil, grapes for wine,
apples for cider, —
If you’d like to research how this harvest is actually done in the human
world, do; or invent for yourself how the fairies do it.
The Season:
Consider what the harvest is and what it means, and choose a sea-
sonal transition to stand for it. Spring to Mud Season? Summer’s Eve to
Summer? Summer to High Summer? Summer to Autumn? Lingering
Autumn to First Frost? First Fost to Winter?
Who Must Die?
^^ An Easy Choice: An effigy of the harvest, a volunteer or someone
pressed into the role against their will. Write them up as Elfin-kind,
Fairy Nobility, Mortal Human Kind, Pastoral Kind, or Wild-kind;
their special play is to defy the murder.
192
^^ No one really, but an unliving effigy of the harvest: the barley cut
down, the apple crushed for cider, the pumpkin carved into a face, or
as so. Write it up as Ghostly-kind, Pastoral-kind, or World-kind; its
special play is to unbegrudge.
^^ An enemy of the harvest. Write them up as cruel Fairy Nobility,
Ghostly-kind, Giant-kind, Goblin-kind, River-kind, Troll-kind,
Twilight-kind, Winter-kind, or Witch-kind; their special play is to
defy the murder.
^^ A sacrifice of beauty. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility,
Mortal Human Kind, Nymph-kind, Sea-kind, or Twilight-kind; their
special play is to set conditions.
Celebrants:
^^ A requisite choice: The workers, the harvesters themselves. Write
them up as Elfin-kind or as Pastoral-kind; their special play is to
malinger.
^^ The crown of the harvest, someone chosen to rule for only this single
celebration. Write them up as Elfin-kind or as Pastoral-kind; their
special play is to give permission.
^^ The crown, the ruler of this place. Write them up as Fairy Nobility
or as the crown of another fairy kind; their special play is to command
order.
^^ The figure of death, whose duty is to commit the harvest murder.
Write them up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Pastoral-kind, or
Winter-kind; their special play is to kill.
^^ The gleaners, allowed to take for their own use the byproduct of the
harvest. Write them up as Elfin-kind, Goblin-kind, Homely-kind,
Pastoral-kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is to tell the truth.
^^ The master of the staves, whose duty is to lead all in cutting,
thrashing, breaking, chopping, stomping, or grinding. Write them up
as Elfin-kind or as Pastoral-kind; their special play is to assemble and
lead a violent gang.
^^ The master taster, whose duty is to confirm what all know: that the
harvest is ready. Write them up as Elfin-kind or as Pastoral-kind; their
special play is to drop a bombshell.
193
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus is here to celebrate the conclusion of the
harvest.
^^ The circus is here to join the work.
^^ The circus is here to entertain the workers.
^^ The circus is here to perform the murder
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the murder. At whose word?
^^ The circus is here to provide the sacrifice.
Additional Imagery:
^^ Rolling hills, rolling fields, placid river, threatening rain, night breezes,
huge full moon, tended forest, coppiced arbor, half-wild orchard, crops
or vines in rows, crops or brambles in no order, mushrooms, —
^^ Staves, sickles, scythes, pails, pitchforks, flails, grindstone, barrel
press, stone press, press tub, measuring sticks, measuring cords, baling
twine, stone basin, copper pots, barrels, stoneware crocks, stone
cistern, —
^^ Timber hall, timber platform, stone silo, wide pavillion, sawhorse
tables, scattered tents, dancing-green, fenced working field, —
^^ Working-songs, walking-songs, threshing-songs, stomping-songs, love
songs, comic songs, family songs, bragging-songs, labor songs, feats,
contests, boasts, challenges, head down and work hard, malingering,
muttering, excuses, good-natured griping, hard griping, —
194
1. Ingathering & preperation.
The celebrants assemble, learn what the work is to be, learn what the
tools are, learn how the celebration will proceed, and take their places.
2. The beginning of the harvest.
Silence and attention for the first apple picked, the first sheaf cut, the
first turn of the press.
3. The work of the harvest.
Encompassing both the material work and the symbolic work.
4. The culmination of the harvest.
Silence and attention for the last apple picked, the last sheaf cut, the
last turn of the press.
5. The celebration of the harvest.
Releasing the celebrants from the work, to celebrate the work.
Feasting, dancing, singing; not only the end of the workday, or the end of
the workweek, but the end of the workyear.
Someone has to re-order the tools, rinse down the tubs, clear the yards.
Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Harvest Celebration
careening off-outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially to spoil the
harvest altogether. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as players, to
prevent this from happening.

195
To play the Harvest Murder:
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Harvest Murder’s order of
any loose ends.
Was the harvest, after all, a success?
196
֍
In Fairyland: The Horrible Feast
֍
T o create the story of the Horrible Feast, choose

The Chef:
^^ An easy choice: Write the chef up as Fairy Nobility, Giant-kind,
Goblin-kind, River-kind, Spider-kind, Troll-kind, Twilight-kind,
Winter-kind, or Witch-kind; their special play is to flatter the feasters.
^^ The chef isn’t an NPC, it’s (choose 1): a battle, a catastrophe, a disease,
or a shipwreck. Interpret the removes in the feast’s outline as its
progress: the first remove as the first exchange of sallies in the battle,
the feast proper as the waves of the epidemic, &c.
The Feast:
^^ Write the feast up as Elfin-kind, Fairy Nobility, Mortal Human Kind,
Sea-kind, or Wild-kind; their special play is to defy the feasters.
The Celebrants:
^^ A requisite choice: The host of the feast. Write them up as you choose;
their special play is to withdraw hospitality.
^^ A requisite choice: The guests of the feast. Write them up as you
choose; their special play is to gratify the chef.
^^ The bereft, who loved the feast. Special play: to scream.
^^ An embodiment of death, the founder of the feast. Special play: to
acknowledge praise on the chef ’s behalf.
^^ A prisoner, forced to witness the feast. Special play: to grieve or rage.
^^ The unwitting, who doesn’t realize what they’re eating. Special play: to
relish with gusto.
197
Masters of Service:
^^ The master of the chamber, whose duties include the entertainment
of the feasters, including directing the circus if it’s here in that
capacity. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to extend
invitations.
^^ The master of casks, who directs the service of drinks, and must suit
them to each remove. Write them up as you choose; their special play
is to show excellent taste.
^^ The master of knives, who directs the kitchen to meet the needs of
the chef. Write them up as you choose; their special play is to open the
kitchen door.
^^ The master of removes, who directs the service and announces each
remove as it is served. Write them up as you choose; their special play
is to command silence.
^^ The master of toasts, who directs the participation of the feasters.
Write them up as you choose; their special play is to call the feasters to
join together.
The Season:
Consider what the Horrible Feast means, and choose a seasonal transi-
tion to stand for it.Spring to Mud Season? Summer to Autumn? Lingering
Autumn to First Frost? First Fost to Winter?
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus is here to entertain the feasters.
^^ The circus is here as guests, to join the feast.
^^ The circus is here to provide the feast.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the feast. At whose word?
198
1. Assembling.
The celebrants take their places at table and greet each other
appropriately.
2. The first remove.
Silence and attention for the serving of the first remove. The first
remove introduces the feast and both the skill and the intentions of the
chef. It awakens the senses, the appetite, and the bloodlust, and makes
promise of the feast to come.
3. The feast proper.
Each new remove — there may be only one, there may be several or
many — reveals another facet of the chef ’s skill, while developing the chef ’s
themes and drawing out the fulfillment of the feast’s promise.
4. The last remove.
Silence and attention for the serving of the last remove. The last
remove resolves the chef ’s themes, underscores the chef ’s mastery, and fixes
the feast in the mind.
5. The postprandial.
Conversation, delectation, conviviality. Toasting the chef, who may or
may not grace the company by appearing in person.
Someone has to scrape the dishes, count the glasses, scrub the pots,
give mercy, gnaw the bones. Everyone else, doesn’t have to.
Note that anyone present could conceivably send the Horrible Feast careening
off-outline, to the giddy dismay of all, and potentially to spoil the feast
altogether. It’s not your job as MC, nor the players’ job as players, to prevent

199
Additional Imagery:
^^ A cookfire in the wilderness, a roaring smoky kitchen, a stately manor,
a formal dining hall, an intimate dining chamber, a rough dirty room,
a house made of something fanciful like straw or gingerbread, a great
mortar & pestle, spits aturning, cauldrons full of flame, an enormous
clay bread-oven, a spotless professional kitchen, a food truck or
traveling food wagon, a cold raw meal by night, —
^^ A battle pitch with soldiers clashing in ranks, travelers caught in
impossible wilderness & weather, a ship foundering and sinking, a
plague-house or plague city, collapsing buildings, a gallows, a harrying
pack, a trap for the guileless, an ambush for the lost, wire snares, a
deadfall, a baited cage, a barbed hook, a hanging loop, a game sack, a
fattening pen, a butchery yard, —
To play the Horrible Feast:

show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the Horrible Feast’s order of
any loose ends.
Was the feast devoured after all? Was the chef gratified?
200
֍
In Fairyland: Freeform Occasions
֍
W hen none of the occasion playbooks suits the

occasion, you can create an occasion without them. Any interesting place to
perform and interesting audience will do. Just summarize its story in a few
sentences, write up your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
Where to start?
^^ Generalize the particular and particularize the general.
To generalize the particular, think of a situation that interests you, a
conversation you had with a friend or a relationship from a book, and
create from it a general principle or theme. “You can’t trust a parent.”
“There’s no such thing as a moral king.” “Don’t go into business with
someone you love.”
To particularize then general, take a general principle or theme, and
cast it in individual people, in a particular situation. “Gorebore the
Giant is abroad with his daughter, but intends to give her over as a
gift to the Wolf King of Winter.” “The King of the Wild Moon has
made himself a peacemaker between warring goblins and elves, but
has achieved peace by arming one side against another and sending
his own warrior to do their dirty work.” “A selkie and a mortal human
fisherman have fallen in love, but in order to prosper, the fisherman is
ever-increasingly exploiting the selkie’s gifts.”
^^ Literalize the metaphorical and metaphoricize the literal.
To literalize the metaphorical, invent a metaphor, then make it a real
person or a real place. “The bridge over which the sun crosses from
horizon to horizon.” “The river of time: wade upstream and you turn
your years backward, emerging young; wade downstream and you
turn your years forward, until at last you drown of old age.”
To metaphoricize the literal, take a concrete person or place, and
stand them in for a larger situation. “A little bridge over a stream
in the woods, and a woodswife can’t cross over, and so it is with the
seasons: summer’s stuck and can’t become autumn.” “A spider is
hunting among the elves of the pasture, and anyone it takes, becomes a
soldier in the ghostly army of the Gibbet-god.”
201
^^ Set and people the stage.
Choose a place that you can imagine, and then simply imagine who’s
there. Imagine it on a normal occasion, or an unusual one: busy when
it’s usually deserted, deserted when it’s usually busy; in an off-season,
or at night.
“The square of a walled elfin town, on the borders of a Troll-wood and
looking up upon a wind-haunted mountain. On any typical evening,
mingle here elves, fairies of the pasture and heath, farm-fairies, fine
fairy ladies and gentlemen, uncanny beings from the twilit mountains,
trolls from the wood, goblins, and sometimes a witch.” “The summer
palace of the River Queen, but she is not in attendance. Her court of
nymphs idles away the summer days, while her household staff busies
itself preparing for her return.”
^^ What-if yourself out of the sensible.
Ask yourself a question and try on different answers — what if? —
until you arrive at a situation you find comical, dangerous, poetic, just,
or absurd.
“Why would the Wolf King of Winter be stranded on an isle in the
Summer Sea? What if he’s fallen in love with a seal? Or, what if he’s
fallen in love with a whale? And she secretly hated him, and drew him
out to the island to abandon him? But why would a whale hate the
Wolf King of Winter? What if he’s been providing whale-hunters with
harpoons of deadly ice?”
^^ You don’t know what the circus will do.
Your goal and job is to create an interesting place and an interesting
audience for the circus’ performance, not necessarily to create a
problem for the circus to solve. Consequently, if you find that you’ve
created a situation with a villian, spend a moment imagining how to
make the villain appealing, sympathetic, or useful to the circus.
“The Wolf King of Winter has pursued his love, a whale-woman, to
this island, where she lured and abandoned him. She hates him for
providing whale-hunters with harpoons of ice, and who can blame
her? Still, he can offer the circus opportunities and rewards, if they’ll
take him off the island again when they go.” “A spider is hunting the
elves of the pasture, turning them into ghostly soldiers for the Gibbet-
god’s army. Still, the spider is pleasant, wise, and thoughtful, far less
frivolous and absurd than the elves, she doesn’t take more than they
can spare, and she’s excited and eager to watch the circus perform.”
202
Where are we?
^^ A Court
^^ A Crossroads
^^ A Festival Fair
^^ A Market Fair
^^ A Roadside
^^ A Town
^^ A Wild Place
^^ Another of your own invention: —
Draw a map if you like.
What season is it now, and what season will it become?
Who’s here?
^^ Choose a working kind, a playing kind, a buying kind, a selling kind.
^^ Choose a fairy kind, a fairy kind, a fairy kind, and another fairy kind.
^^ Choose the kind of the earth, the kind of the water, the kind of the air,
the kind of the dancing fire.
^^ Choose the wicked kind, the trodden kind, the complicit kind, the
kindly kind.
^^ Choose the fools, the jokers, the ranks, and the court.
^^ Choose the humanish kind, the beastish kind, the birdish kind, and
the kind like shadows and wind.
^^ Others of your own invention: —
Write them up as you choose.
What’s happening?
^^ All here are accustomed to luxury and the best, and the circus will be
hard put to impress them.
^^ The circus introduces an uncertainty, an uncontrolled element, into
someone’s plans or comfortable arrangement.
^^ Some here are content, and others aren’t.
^^ There’s a building tension, hostility beneath the surface, soon to erupt.
^^ There’s someone here
^^ Things are hard here, and all are eager for diversion and change.
^^ Things are precarious here, and the circus might disrupt delicate
balances.
^^ Things are well here, and the circus is warmly welcome.
^^ Another of your own invention: —
203
What are the laws here?
^^ Ask none else to settle your dues.
^^ Ask none to curtail their nature.
^^ Declare yourself in full to all you meet.
^^ Don’t look behind the hanging curtains.
^^ Don’t open this door. In fact, don’t open any doors uninvited.
^^ Free all who serve.
^^ Go masked.
^^ Harbor never the foe, nor the foe’s friend.
^^ Keep off the regent’s road.
^^ No complaining.
^^ No immoderate levity.
^^ No kissing.
^^ No music.
^^ Observe the regent’s woe and weal.
^^ Present yourself for service and duty due.
^^ Render tribute to the regent.
^^ Still all mistemper.
^^ Surrender to the regent all humankind and all human things.
^^ Tax to the measure, nor skimp.
^^ Wages for work, no work for none.
^^ Another or others of your own invention: —
The circus :
The moment of its arrival:
What’s happening at the moment of the circus’ arrival?
204
Play the session as usual:
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the occasion’s order of events,
or try to derail them, as suitable; or else introduce the occasion’s
developments if and as you choose.
any loose ends.
205
֍
In the Human World: An Arts Festival
֍
T o create the story of an Arts Festival, choose as many

The Festival’s Theme:
^^ Arts & crafts ^^ Local distilling
^^ Beer ^^ Local history
^^ Bread ^^ Mead
^^ A community, namely — ^^ Movies
^^ The county, namely — ^^ A music genre, namely —
^^ Dancing ^^ Poetry
^^ Fireworks ^^ Pot
^^ Games of chance ^^ The region, namely —
^^ Games of skill ^^ Restaurants
^^ Garlic ^^ Scarecrows
^^ A giant puppet parade ^^ The season, namely —
^^ A hobby or enthusiasm, namely — ^^ Song
^^ Holiday lights ^^ Stones & minerals
^^ Honey & beekeeping ^^ Stunts & tricks
^^ Hot peppers ^^ Textile arts
^^ Jack-o-lanterns ^^ The town, namely —
^^ Labor & workers ^^ Wine
^^ Livestock & produce ^^ Other: —
^^ Local artists
The Festival’s Title:

Choose words related to the themes and string them together. Mill
Hollow Scarecrow Fest, Garlic & Games, Toast of the Town, Solidarity Sings,
Greenfield Dinosaur Days.
206
The Festival’s Setting:
^^ A beach or riverside.
^^ A commercial venue like a theater or restaurant.
^^ A downtown.
^^ A fairground.
^^ A farm or farmers’ market.
^^ An institutional site like a school or hospital.
^^ A nature reserve, discovery center, or campsite.
^^ A retreat center or place of worship.
^^ A sculpture garden.
^^ Someone’s home.
^^ A town, city, state or national park.
^^ A vacant lot.
^^ A wild place.
^^ Other: —
Things To Do:
^^ Challenge the champion.
^^ Compare your art or work with others’.
^^ Dance together.
^^ Go from booth to booth, stand to stand, table to table, or site to site.
^^ Greet your friends old and new.
^^ Judge the best.
^^ March and chant in unison.
^^ Participate in the contests.
^^ Put money in the hat.
^^ Play the games.
^^ Sing together.
^^ Take a turn performing.
^^ Taste the theme ingredient in many forms.
^^ Try your hand at it.
^^ Volunteer in the kitchen, at the grills, at the ovens, at the sinks.
^^ Volunteer to help clean up.
^^ Watch, admire, marvel and cheer.
^^ Window shop and actual shop.
^^ Other: —
207
The Season:
Choose the Arts Festival’s season. Since it’s being put on by mortal
human beings, choose the season convenient to its organizers.
The Festivalgoers:
^^ Someone bold. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to plunge in.
^^ Someone careful. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to wonder what they don’t realize.
^^ Someone cynical. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to assume there’s an angle.
^^ Someone devoted. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to guard or defend someone.
^^ Someone fearful. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to hold back or draw away.
^^ Someone inventive. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to take a novel tack.
^^ Someone loving. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to treat someone thoughtfully.
^^ Someone patient. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to keep at it, stick to it, or wait for it.
^^ Someone steadfast. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to stand by someone.
^^ Someone suspicious. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to ask questions before committing.
^^ Someone watchful. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being; their
special play is to notice what they might.
^^ Someone wicker-wise. Write them up as a Mortal Human Being;
their special play is to assert guest-right or host-right.
208
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus is here to perform, presenting itself as
mortal human beings.
^^ The circus is here to take in the festival, to do the things to do.
^^ The circus is here to sell its wares.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the festival. Why? At whose word?
Developments:
as they occur:
^^ The arts celebrated here, made as they are with human creativity and
care, outshine fairy work.
^^ The arts celebrated here, of mere mortal make, reveal themselves as
cheap, gaudy, crude, dull, poor.
^^ The arts celebrated here take on a marvelous, magical, unaccustomed
glamor or quality, astonishing all.
^^ Fairies wander in from fairyland to join the festival, drawn by the
circus’ presence here.
^^ A fairy is cornered by a human being carrying iron, and panics. Who,
and how do they play it?
^^ A human being enters into a bargain with a fairy, without realizing it.
Who, and what bargain?
^^ A human being falls in love with one of the players’ characters. Who?
^^ A human being resolves to join the circus. How do they play it?
^^ A human being thinks to challenge one of the players’ characters.
Who, and to what contest?
^^ A human being thinks to recognize one of the players’ characters from
their childhood or their dreams. Who, and which?
^^ A human being, leaving the festival, goes into fairyland instead of back
into their human life. Who, and how do they play it?
^^ Someone else from fairyland has been here all along, and now a
player’s character sees the signs of them. What are they doing here?
209
Until the circus arrives, the Arts Festival is innocent of fairy mischief.
It has a normal human opening ceremony, its own proper festivities as
printed on the daybill, and a closing ceremony that startles no one.
Once the circus arrives, the festival can’t remain the same.
To play the Arts Festival:
show. Introduce further developments as you choose.
any loose ends.
How did the Arts Festival go?
210
֍
In the Human World: Lost in the Woods
֍
T o create the story of Lost in the Woods, choose facts

and elements as follow, and summarize them in a few sentences. Write up
your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
The Woods:
^^ A beach or riverside with hiking paths nearby.
^^ An old cemetery in the woods.
^^ A public park with groves of trees.
^^ A retreat center or place of worship in the woods.
^^ A sculpture garden with a wooded section.
^^ Someone’s home, far back from the road.
^^ A state or national park.
^^ A town or city park or graveyard.
^^ A vacant lot with trees growing up in it.
^^ A wild place.
^^ The wooded grounds of a library, museum, school, or hospital.
^^ A wooded hill within town boundaries.
^^ Other: —
Name the woods: Northfield Mountain Discovery Center, Peskeomscut Cove,
Savoy State Park.
The Season:
Choose the season, or ask the circus to choose the season
211
Who’s in the Woods?
212
Denizens of the Woods:
^^ An antiquarch of squirrels and its countless living descendants.
^^ Bats.
^^ A black bear and her cubs.
^^ The cats of every neighborhood nearby.
^^ A convocation of crows, dapper and perhaps self-concerned.
^^ An extended family of deer: stag, does, fawns.
^^ Fireflies.
^^ Foxes.
^^ The migrating songbirds, at this stayover on their journey.
^^ Owls & panthers.
^^ Peepers, chirpers, buzzers & croakers.
^^ A raven younger than the moon, but not much younger.
^^ The skunks, posses, whistle-pigs, raccoons, beavers, badgers, and other
like persons.
^^ A timeless thing, an ancient creature forgotten in the modern human
world.
^^ A vast people of rabbits.
^^ The wild bees.
^^ Other: —
Write them up as mortal animals: wild and speechless, quick to fly,
transfixed by fairy glamour. They crave nothing of the circus, and offer
nothing but their unthinking wonder. Their only play is to shake off
enchantment and go back to their own small business.
The Circus:
^^ The circus is here to perform for the denizens of the woods, not for
the human beings at all.
^^ The circus is here to perform for just these precise people, and chose
just this precise night to do it.
^^ The circus is here to practice, try, and improve new acts, in front of no
audience that matters.
^^ The circus is here to meet someone. Who?
213
Before the circus arrives, no one’s Lost in the Woods, they’re just in the
woods. They’re together at a time and place where no one else is there, but
the paths are familiar. The mood is innocent of fairy mischief.
At the moment of the circus’ arrival, they step off any known path, and
the woods can’t remain the same.
Developments:
as they occur:
^^ Different human beings, lost in the woods themselves, but maybe
from different woods, different times, arrive as well. Who, and how do
they play it?
^^ Fairies pour in from fairyland to watch the circus, completely
surrounding and engulfing the human beings.
^^ A human being falls in love with one of the players’ characters. Who,
and which?
^^ A human being flees in terror into the woods. Who, and where does
their flight take them?
^^ A human being realizes something about their own nature. Who, and
what?
^^ A human being resolves to go with the circus when it departs, with or
without the circus’ permission. Who, and how do they play it?
^^ A human being thinks to beg a boon of one of the players’ characters,
maybe without understanding why. Who, and what boon?
^^ A human being thinks to challenge one of the players’ characters.
Who, and to what contest?
^^ A human being thinks to confront one of the players’ characters.
Who, and to what end?
^^ Someone else comes here from fairyland, following the circus or
drawn by it. Who?
player’s character sees the signs of them. Who, and what are they
doing here?
214
To play Lost in the Woods:
any loose ends.
Did they ever find their way home again?
215
֍
In the Human World: A Rite of Passage
֍
T o create the story of a Rite of Passage, choose facts

and elements as follow, and summarize them in a few sentences. Write up
your NPCs, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
Today is or marks someone’s:
^^ Adulthood ^^ Diagnosis ^^ Ordination
^^ Bereavement ^^ Divorce ^^ Rebirth
^^ Birth ^^ Graduation ^^ Recovery
^^ Birthday ^^ Initiation ^^ Retirement
^^ Birth-giving ^^ Last day of life ^^ Transition
^^ Burial ^^ Liberation ^^ Widowing
^^ Coming out ^^ Marriage ^^ Other: —
^^ Conscription ^^ Menopause
^^ Conviction ^^ Naming
Its Title:
Name the person whose passage it is, and name the passage. Benjamin’s
Conscription, Cara’s Marriage, Mercy’s Transition.
The Season:
Choose the season. Since this is a mortal human occasion, its season
and its meaning might not be related at all. Choose at random or by human
considerations.
The Setting:
^^ A beach, river, or swimming hole.
^^ A commercial venue like a theater or restaurant.
^^ A downtown.
^^ A fairground, library or museum.
^^ A farm or farmers’ market.
^^ An institutional site like a school, hospital, or prison.
^^ A ghost town.
^^ A municipal site like a courthouse, city hall, or police station.
216
^^ A retreat center or place of worship.
^^ A sculpture garden.
^^ Someone’s home.
^^ A state or national park.
^^ A town or city park or graveyard.
^^ A vacant lot.
^^ A wild place.
^^ Other: —
Who’s Here?
217
The Observances:
^^ A blessing or blessings.
^^ Cake.
^^ A caregiver: doctor, doula, hospice worker, midwife, nurse,
pharmacist, mortician.
^^ Champagne.
^^ Dedication to a new role or to new tasks.
^^ A dunking, a jeering, a mock-beating, a real beating, or other hazing.
^^ A festive informal meal.
^^ A formal meal.
^^ A formal officiant.
^^ Formal words, oaths, recitations.
^^ Gift-giving.
^^ Giving & receiving advice.
^^ Laughing, cheering, toasting.
^^ Leave-taking.
^^ Mourning.
^^ Music, singing & dancing.
^^ Private reflection.
^^ Reminiscing.
^^ Solemnity.
^^ Symbolic acts, words, or ceremony.
^^ Well-wishing.
^^ Witnesses.
^^ Other: —
Also consider which should rightly be part of the passage’s obser-
vances, but aren’t.
The Circus:
^^ The circus is here to celebrate the rite of passage.
^^ The circus is here to welcome the person to this side of their passage.
^^ The circus is here to interrupt the rite of passage. Why? At whose
word?
^^ The circus is here to meet someone. Who?
218
Until the circus arrives, the Rite of Passage is innocent of fairy
mischief. It’s a normal celebration, a normal grieving, a normal acknowl-
edgment of a milestone in a person’s life.
Once the circus arrives, the Rite of Passage can’t remain the same.
Developments:
as they occur:
^^ The circus participates in the observances.
^^ The circus has interfered with the passage and must do — to set it
right.
^^ Fairies pour in from fairyland to watch the circus, overrunning the rite
of passage with complete disregard.
^^ A human being closes themself off from the intensity of the
experience. Who, and how do they play it?
^^ A human being falls in love with one of the players’ characters. Who?
^^ A human being, maybe unthinking, makes a wish aloud. Who, and
for what?
^^ A human being objects to the circus’ presence here. Who, and how do
they play it?
^^ A human being realizes something about their own nature. What?
^^ A human being suddenly leaves. Who, and where does their departure
take them?
^^ A human being thinks to beg a boon of one of the players’ characters,
maybe without understanding why. Who, and what boon?
^^ A human being thinks to confront one of the players’ characters.
Who, and over what?
^^ Someone else comes here from fairyland, following the circus or
drawn by it. Who?
player’s character sees the signs of them. Who, and what are they
doing here?
219
To play the Rite of Passage:
any loose ends.
Did they ever find their way home again?
220
֍
In the Human World: A Thinning of the Veil
֍
A Thinning of the Veil is when an occasion in the

mortal human world overlaps, intermingles with, and opens the doorway
to, an identical occasion in fairyland.
Choose an occasion in fairyland and write its story, but recast it into
the mortal human world. Replace many or all of the fairies with mortal
human beings. Hide the fairy magic underneath normal human emotion
and business.
show. Have your NPCs try to hold to the occasion’s order of events,
or try to derail them, as suitable; or else introduce the occasion’s
developments if and as you choose.
any loose ends.
221
֍
Anywhere: We Are Ourselves the Occasion
֍
W hen the circus must create their own occasion, lead

them through the following questions to create the story. Summarize their
answers in a few sentences. Write up your NPCs as you choose, and plan
the moment of the circus’ arrival.
If the circus is between the worlds, they must always make the occasion
themselves. There are no occasions otherwise!
Ask the circus where they’ll stop to perform:
^^ If they’re in fairyland, they can name the domains — the River Queen’s
summer palace, the Crowned Stag’s home woods — or else they can
describe the spot. If they’d like suggestions, you can offer: an ancient
whispering forest; a beautiful lake with hills all around; a castle in the
clouds; a cave beneath the stones; a crooked river in a steep, rocky land;
a market fairground when the market isn’t on; fields of barleycorn; fields
of fairy dock; a field of wildflowers; a lost crossroads with an overgrown
signpost; a narrow bridge, groaning and rocking as you pass; an orchard by
a slow, wide river; a palace beneath the sea; a pool of lilies and reeds; a ring
of standing-stones; a stone castle on a windy promontory; a stone hall hung
with tapestries of silver and gold; a timber mead-hall with roaring fires and
split-log tables; a wide, decorated stone bridge; a wide overspreading oak on
a hill; any other that strikes your fancy.
^^ If they’re in the mortal human world, have them describe the spot. If
they’d like suggestions, you can offer: a beach, river, or swimming hole; a
commercial venue like a theater or restaurant; a downtown; a fairground,
library or museum; a farm or farmers’ market; an institutional site like a
school, hospital, or prison; a ghost town;a municipal site like a courthouse,
city hall, or police station; a nature reserve, discovery center, or campsite;
a retreat center or place of worship; a sculpture garden; someone’s home;
a state or national park; a town or city park or graveyard; a vacant lot; a
wild place; any other that strikes your fancy.
^^ If they’re between the worlds, they have little enough choice: there are
no neighborhoods in the city of all cities, no moonlit groves in the gray
woods. Describe for them where they are and what’s around them, and
there’s no sense hoping for a better spot around the next corner.
222
Ask the circus who they hope to perform for:
They can name the audience they hope for, if indeed they have one in
mind, or else they can perform for whomever happens to be there.
Once they’ve told you, it’s up to you to decide who their audience will,
in fact, be. Will the audience they hope for, come to see them? Who does
happen to be there?
But before you decide, have them choose 1:
^^ No one knew that we were coming.
^^ Only one or a few people knew that we were coming, namely —.
^^ Everyone knew that we were coming, as we’ve been announcing it
everywhere we go, and we’ve had the place postered in advance.
^^ Somehow everyone knew that we were coming, but we never
announced it, so we can only guess how they knew.
Write the story of their occasion:
Summarize their choices in a few sentences. Write the audience up as
NPCs, as you choose, and plan the moment of the circus’ arrival. Who’s
there and what’s happening? Which NPC will be the first to greet them,
and how will they play it?
show. As there’s no order of events or list of possible developments,
simply have your NPCs act according to their natures and interests.
any loose ends.
223
Chapter 7:
The Mistress of Ceremonies’ Characters
(NPCs)
Rules
To prep for a session, follow the rules to write up your occasion’s NPCs:
^^ First write up your occasion, following the rules in Chapter 7:
Occasions: Places to Perform and Audiences to Perform For, to create the
list of NPCs you need to write up.
^^ For each NPC, list their kind, their role, their plays, their name &
pronouns, and their imagery.
^^ List what they crave from the circus, and the largesse they have to give.
^^ For the NPCs in the circus, choose their place in the circus instead of
their role in the occasion, and choose what they want from and offer to
the circus players’ characters.
224
֍
Creating NPCs
֍
To create an NPC, in any order:
^^ List the occasion you’re creating them for.
^^ List their role in the occasion and their special play.
^^ Choose their kind. List their common plays.
^^ Choose what they crave and what they have to give.
^^ Choose their name & pronouns.
^^ Choose imagery.
On “fairy kinds”:
To fairies, always mercurial, kind isn’t fundamental. Kind is a costume
you put on, a part you play, and if it becomes habitual from long practice,
still, you are not the costume you wear.
When you’re writing up a fairy NPC, often you’ll have a choice of
kinds even for the same fairy. While Gorebore the Giant is, we can say,
giant-kind, is the Wolf King of Winter fairy nobility or winter-kind? The
answer is both or either (or another). Read both, and choose the one that
better suits your vision, occasion by occasion.
Like all costumes, fairy kinds are occasionally a poor fit for the fairies
who wear them. When you write up an NPC, you can change any word,
any play, any rule. While Gorebore the Giant is a giant, he is not, we must
admit, full of calculation, but instead full of appetite. (Full of wanting, full
of lack, full of emptiness? A comical conundrum.)
Their plays might represent what they do, but might instead be what
they hold in reserve, or even what they’re capable of but will never do.
Further, fairies can change their kinds, on purpose or on occasion.
Today’s goblin jester is tomorrow’s crowned fairy queen. Once per year,
the fairy queen sets aside her crown and becomes a witch of the crossroad,
answering the questions of those who seek her out. And what’s the destiny
of a witch but to become eventually world-kind, to be the moon or the
forest or the great stones of the earth that she loves?
225
֍
Fairy Kinds
֍
^^ Elfin-kind: Mock-prim, mock-solemn, disobedient and whimsical, full
of fun and lies.
^^ Fairy Nobility: Courtly, courteous, judgmental and indifferent, full of
poetry and themselves.
^^ Ghostly-kind: Haunting and haunted, mysterious and bound, full of
sorrow and silence.
^^ Giant-kind: Gargantuan, solitary, violent and unpleasant, full of
passion and calculation.
^^ Goblin-kind: Wry, uncouth, practical and malicious, full of caring and
hurt.
^^ Homely-kind: House-brownies, woods-helpers, the goblin who lives
in the barn, the elf who lives under the hearth. The fairies closest,
by habit, to mortal humanity. Hardworking, sullen, loyal and
unforgiving, full of warmth and mischief.
^^ Mortal Human Kind: Open-hearted, forgiving, creative and mortal,
full of truth and dreams.
^^ Nymph-kind, Lily-nymphs, Reed-nymphs, & Willow-kind: Stately,
quiet, slender and irresolute, full of envies and unacted-upon impulses.
^^ Pastoral-kind: Laconic, quick-witted, unhurried and calculating, full
of patience and mistrust.
^^ River-kind or Lake-kind, Mer-kind, & Dwellers in Pond & Pool:
Beautiful, watchful, treacherous and merciless, full of death and
premonition.
^^ Sea-kind: Beautiful, unreachable, implacable and lost, full of song and
doom.
^^ Spider-kind: Beautiful, curious, fastidious and hungry, full of patience
and caution.
226
^^ Tree-kind: Slow-moving, slow-living, philosophical and resilient, full
of strength and memory.
^^ Troll-kind: Big, suspicious, quarrelsome and outlandish, full of
emotion and physical power.
^^ Twilight-kind: Mercurial, lurid, intense and cautious, full of love and
cruelty.
^^ Wild-kind: Graceful, quiet, easily startled, quick to violence, full of
heart and life.
^^ Winter-kind: Untamed, beautiful, calculating and hard, full of hunger
and self-assurance.
^^ Witch-kind: Calculating, kind, unflinching and inward-looking, full
of half-truths and powers.
^^ Wizard-kind: Miscalculating, thoughtless, indifferent and long-
looking, full of arcane impulses and unmet needs.
^^ World-kind: The wind, the sky, the sea, the mountain, the forest, the
river, the island, the thunderstorm. Vast, impersonal, eternal and ever-
changing, full of generosity and danger.
^^ And other kinds still, in variety to baffle the categorian.
227
֍
Elfin-kind
֍
M ock-prim, mock-solemn, disobedient and whimsical,

full of fun and lies. Plays common to the kind: to disappear into the
landscape, to parody someone.
From the circus, I crave (choose 1 or more):
^^ Beauty, comeuppance, flattery, music, romance, titillation, —.
If you please me, I’ll freely give you (choose 1 or more):

^^ Applause and cheers, dry leaves (fairy coins), fairy coins (dry leaves),
invitations of all sorts, laughter, —.
I could give you, but I value and hold back (choose 1 or 2):
^^ Acclaim, my loyalty, a promise, words of praise, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and an evocative image. Marigh Blushbloom,
Roanne Star-caller.
^^ Choose a mashup of nature words and a profession. Pinewind the
Weaver, Stoneplover the Illuminator.
^^ Choose a relationship and a nonsense word. Cousin Iorro, Aunt
Cheesewall.
^^ Or use the naming rule of a suitable unused character playbook.
Imagery (answer 1 or more, for this particular fairy):

^^ What makes this fairy stand out from other elves?
^^ What feature does this fairy have in common with a plant or animal?
^^ What makes this fairy charming, appealing, or beautiful?
^^ What makes this fairy menacing, off-putting, or uncanny?
^^ What does this fairy smell like?
^^ What’s this fairy’s affectation, habit, or style?
^^ Choose a question from another fairy kind.
228
֍
Fairy Nobility
֍
C ourtly, courteous, judgmental and indifferent, full of

poetry and themselves. Plays common to the kind: to fall in love, to impose
their will.
^^ Beauty, real danger, flattery, mystery, romance, the truth, —.

^^ Courteous applause, my love, roses, wildflowers, toasts, words of
praise, —.
^^ A boon I’ll grant, my bowed head, immoderate expressions of delight,
an invitation to dally, an invitation to perform elsewhere, an invitation
to return, real tears, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and a toponym. Aglinelle of the Sea Isle,
Torrasten of the Vale.
^^ Choose a good name and a compliment. Aven Calm, Tara the Lively.
^^ Name me by my title. The River Queen, the Wolf-King of Winter.

^^ What circlet, coronet, veil, or crown does this fairy wear?
^^ What makes this fairy imposing, beautiful, or regal?
^^ What makes this fairy ugly, menacing, or unapproachable?
^^ What feature does this fairy have in common with a plant or animal?
^^ What color or colors does this fairy favor?
229
֍
Ghostly Kind
֍
H aunting and haunted, mysterious and bound, full of

sorrow and silence. Plays common to the kind: to beckon, to menace.
^^ Justice, kindness, my own story told, recognition, —.

^^ My mercy, a nod of my head, treasures of the grave, —.
^^ My blessing, my protection, safe passage, secrets of the grave, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose my name in life. The Ghost of Elinore Marshall, the Ghost of
Walter MacAvery.
^^ Name me by a description of my appearance or my habits. The Lady
with White Teeth, the Walker by the Pool.

^^ What feature marks this fairy as a ghost or a creature of the grave?
^^ What does this fairy smell like?
^^ What clothing’s remnants does this fairy wear?
^^ What does this fairy’s voice sound like?
^^ What remains of this fairy’s mortal humanity (if, that is, it ever was a
mortal human being)?
230
֍
Giant-kind
֍
G argantuan, solitary, violent and unpleasant, full

of passion and calculation. Plays common to the kind: to seize hold of
something, to turn to violence.
^^ Comedy, distraction, flattery, music, violence real or pretend, —.

^^ Food & drink from my table, items from my hoard of mortal human
wealth, laughter, praise, the threat of violence if you don’t please me
more, —.
^^ A boon I’ll grant, my mercy, a promise, a magical treasure, the truth,
—.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the Giant,
Orbo the Giant, Staka the Giant.
^^ Choose an old-fashioned name and an insult. Hieronymus Pigeyes,
Elisande the Sly.

^^ How does this fairy reveal its tremendous strength?
^^ What is this fairy’s most beautiful feature, and do they show it off to
good effect?
^^ What is this fairy’s most grotesque feature, and do they show it off to
good effect?
231
֍
Goblin-kind
֍
W ry, uncouth, practical and malicious, full of caring

and hurt. Plays common to the kind: to nurse a grudge, to turn fair to foul.
^^ Chaos, real danger, music, pathos, romance, pretend violence, —.

^^ Apples (wormy), a boon I’ll grant, food & drink (vile), my best insults,
invitations of all sorts, laughter, magical treasures (acorns), words of
praise (backhanded), —.
^^ Honest acclaim, my loyalty, a magical treasure (genuine), a wish
granted, words of praise (genuine), —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a common name and a grotesque image. Annie Bothknees,
Carl Fleabrewer.
^^ Choose a name, image, or nonsense word, and a trade good. Batflight
the Candy-maker, Orianna the Ribboner.
Elisande the Sly.
^^ Choose a title and a juxtaposition of images. Officer Berrydive,
Madame Croakthrower.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other goblins?
^^ What does this fairy’s voice sound like?
^^ What feature does this fairy have in common with a plant, an animal,
or a stone?
232
֍
Homely-kind
֍
H ouse-brownies, woods-helpers, the goblin who

lives in the barn, the elf who lives under the hearth. The fairies closest, by
habit, to mortal humanity. Hardworking, sullen, loyal and unforgiving,
full of warmth and mischief. Plays common to the kind: to do the chores, to
"misplace" a tool.
^^ Broad comedy, broad pantomime, a jape, a jibe, a joke, a moment’s fun,
a song I can whistle to myself later, —.

^^ A bent coin dropped in a hat, desultory applause, a grudging nod of
the head, a short chuckle, —.
^^ An affectionate or approving scowl, a good word, a long limb-shaking
laugh, shared food, a task accomplished, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a common name and a household item. Lucy Soapdish, Tom
Cellarstairs.
^^ Name me by a description of my appearance or my habits. The Lady
Churner, the Walker in the Yard.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other elves and goblins?
^^ What color does this fairy favor?
^^ What feature does this fairy have that allows it to go unseen,
unnoticed, or unremarked in the mortal human world?
^^ What feature or habit does this fairy have, that it has borrowed from
the mortal human beings whose home it uncannily shares?
233
֍
Mortal Human Kind
֍
O pen-hearted, forgiving, creative and mortal, full of

truth and dreams. Plays common to the kind: to bear cold iron, to wonder.
^^ Adventure, beauty, comedy, safe danger, the forbidden, music,
romance, tragedy, pretend violence, —.

^^ Adoration, applause and cheers, my pure delight, mortal human coins,
food & drink, laughter, love, tears, thanks, mortal human wine, words
of praise, —.
^^ A promise, the truth, a wish made, —.
For my name, choose a human name.

Imagery (answer 1 or more, for this particular person):
^^ What feature makes this person stand out from those around them?
^^ What feature makes this person appealing, attractive, or beautiful?
^^ What is this person’s least appealing feature or habit?
Additionally, they might be…
^^ Bold; their special play is to plunge in.
^^ Careful; their special play is to wonder what they don’t realize.
^^ Cynical; their special play is to assume there’s an angle.
^^ Devoted; their special play is to guard or defend someone.
^^ Fearful; their special play is to hold back or draw away.
^^ Inventive; their special play is to take a novel tack.
^^ Loving; their special play is to treat someone thoughtfully.
^^ Patient; their special play is to keep at it, stick to it, or wait for it.
^^ Steadfast; their special play is to stand by someone.
^^ Suspicious; their special play is to ask questions before committing.
^^ Watchful; their special play is to notice what they might.
^^ Wicker-wise; their special play is to assert guest-right or host-right.
234
֍
Nymph-kind:
Lily-nymphs, Reed-nymphs, & Willow-kind
֍
S tately, quiet, slender and irresolute, full of envies and

unacted-upon impulses. Plays common to the kind: to admonish, to endure.
^^ Beauty, flattery, mystery, nostalgia, romance, tragedy, —.

^^ Adoration, expressions of delight, mortal human curiosities, an
invitation to dally, sighs, songs, tears, fairy wine, —.
^^ Love, mercy, roses, truth, —.
For my name:
Roanne Star-caller.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other nymphs?
^^ What’s this fairy’s affectation, habit, or style?
^^ What riverside bird, insect, or other creature does this fairy favor?
^^ What feature does this fairy have in common with a fish or
amphibian?
^^ When this fairy sings, what is its voice like?
235
֍
Pastoral-kind
֍
L aconic, quick-witted, unhurried and calculating, full

of patience and mistrust. Plays common to the kind: to get the work done,
to stall someone.
^^ Comedy, comeuppance, distraction, music, overthrow, a scapegoat,
tragedy, a moral, real violence, —.

^^ Applause and cheers, food & drink from my table, an invitation to
return, laughter, toasts, —.
^^ Love, mercy, a promise, fairy brandy, a wish granted, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a common name and an agrarian term. Lucy Grapeseed, Tom
Planting.
Roanne Star-caller.
^^ Choose a good name and a compliment. Aven Calm, Tara the Lively.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other pastoral fairies?
^^ What creature of the field or farmyard does this fairy favor?
^^ How does this fairy dress, when they dress up? How do they dress for
work?
^^ What’s the most surprising feature this fairy has?
^^ What’s this fairy’s most appealing, attractive, or lovely feature?
236
֍
River-kind or Lake-kind,
Mer-kind, & Dwellers in Pond & Pool
֍
B eautiful, watchful, treacherous and merciless, full of

death and premonition. Plays common to the kind: to drown someone, to
whisper to someone.
^^ Beauty, cruelty, real danger, the forbidden, gifts, —.

^^ Reserved applause, mortal human wealth, an invitation to dally, the
threat of violence if you don’t please me more, truth, —.
^^ An invitation to return, love, mercy, a promise, tears, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and a toponym. Aglinelle of the Long Lake,
Torrasten of the Pools.
^^ Choose a syllable or two, and the creature I am or resemble. Taph the
Otter, Ula the Salmon.
^^ Choose a word for water. Brook, Rill, Tarn.
^^ Name me by my title. The River Queen, the King Under the Lake.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other water-fairies?
^^ Many water-fairies are shape-changers, and many keep features of
their other forms. What feature of another form does this fairy keep?
^^ What are this fairy’s eyes like? What is their body like?
^^ What feature does this fairy have, that will warn the careful?
^^ When this fairy sings, what is its voice like?
237
֍
Sea-kind
֍
B eautiful, unreachable, implacable and lost, full of song

and doom. Plays common to the kind: to capsize someone, to disappear
away.
^^ Escape, music, mystery, nostalgia, romance, the truth, —.

^^ My acclaim, an invitation to perform elsewhere, mercy, songs, words
of praise, —.
^^ My love, a promise, a magical treasure, a wish granted, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the
Mermaid, Orbo the Sea-serpent, Staka the Undertow.
Gull, Ula the Leopard Seal.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other sea-fairies?
^^ Which sea animal does this fairy favor? In what way?
^^ What’s this fairy’s most beautiful, arresting, or fascinating feature?
^^ What’s this fairy’s strangest, most off-putting feature?
^^ What are this fairy’s teeth like?
238
֍
Spider-kind
֍
B eautiful, curious, fastidious and hungry, full of

patience and caution. Plays common to the kind: to entangle, to show a
path.
^^ Music, prey, puzzles, riddles, stories with very complicated plots,
truth, —.

^^ Advice, applause, a favor granted, money, —.
^^ My blessing, a gift of silk, my guidance, my love, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a name, a nonsense word, or a family relationship and a
reference to hands, feet, arms, legs, or textiles. Elisande Longsleeves,
Grandma Knitter.
^^ Choose a spider’s name. Pholcus Phalangioides, Thiodina Sylvana.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other spider-kind?
^^ Which jewel does this fairy favor? Does it wear any on its person?
^^ Which of this fairy’s limbs does it use for hands, and which for feet?
^^ What’s this fairy’s most beautiful feature, and do they show it off to
good effect?
^^ What is this fairy’s silk like?
^^ What is this fairy’s most persistent, distinctive habit?
239
֍
Tree-kind
֍
S low-moving, slow-living, philosophical and resilient,

full of strength and memory. Plays common to the kind: to outwait, to shift
a foundation.
^^ Beautiful music, a long story well-told, philosophical jokes, truth,
wind and sunlight, —.

^^ Advice, fruit or nuts, shelter, —.
^^ My acclaim, my loyalty, the oldest songs, a promise, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a tree’s name, Latin or common. Betula Lenta, Quercus
Lyrata.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other tree-kind?
^^ What kind of tree is this fairy?
^^ What’s this fairy’s voice like?
good effect?
^^ What are this fairy’s trunk, limbs, and crown like?
240
֍
Troll-kind
֍
B ig, suspicious, quarrelsome and outlandish, full of

emotion and physical power. Plays common to the kind: to be annoyed, to
upheave something.
^^ Beauty, comedy, danger of all sorts, the forbidden, nostalgia, pathos,
violence of all sorts, —.

^^ Acorns (fairy coins), applause & cheers, mortal human curiosities,
mortal human wealth, fairy wine, —.
^^ A boon I’ll grant, an invitation to perform elsewhere, a promise, my
thanks, a magical treasure, a wish granted, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a common name and a threatening image. Matilda the Gibbet,
Sawbite John.
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the Troll,
Orbo the Troll, Staka the Troll.
Elisande the Sly.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other trolls?
good effect?
^^ What’s this fairy’s most horrifying feature, and do they show it off to
good effect?
^^ What are this fairy’s hands like? What are its teeth like?
241
֍
Twilight-kind
֍
M ercurial, lurid, intense and cautious, full of love and

cruelty. Plays common to the kind: to change shape, to touch someone.
^^ Chaos, cruelty, real danger, distraction, the forbidden, overthrow, real
violence, —.

^^ Reserved applause, an invitation to remain here, soft laughter, a
promise, roses, fairy wine, wishes granted, —.
^^ Real delight, mortal human wealth, a magical treasure, mercy, truth,
—.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the Puca,
Orbo the Moon-Owl, Staka the Gallows-Woman.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other fairies?
^^ What nighttime animal does this fairy favor? In what way?
^^ What’s this fairy’s most beautiful, attractive, striking feature?
^^ What are this fairy’s hands like? What are its teeth like?
242
֍
Wild-kind
֍
G raceful, quiet, easily startled, quick to violence, full of

heart and life. Plays common to the kind: to lead a chase, to turn at bay.
^^ An escape, flattery, music, mystery, oneness, —.

^^ Acorns, boons granted, fruit, an invitation to return, laughter, mercy,
thanks, wildflowers, —.
^^ My bowed head, an invitation to perform elsewhere, my loyalty, a
promise, a wish granted, —.
For their names:

^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the White
Deer, Orbo the Badger, Staka the Raven.
Fox, Ula the Leopard Seal.

^^ What wild animal does this fairy favor? In what way?
good effect?
^^ What are this fairy’s hands like? What are its teeth like? Its eyes?
243
֍
Winter-kind
֍
U ntamed, beautiful, calculating and hard, full of

hunger and self-assurance. Plays common to the kind: to bide their time; to
corner, press, or encircle someone.
^^ Cruelty, flattery, the forbidden, novelty, ruination, the truth, real
violence, —.

^^ Reserved applause, fairy coins, an invitation to perform elsewhere, an
invitation to return, the threat of violence if you don’t please me more,
—.
^^ My bowed head, a caught breath, a boon granted, honest laughter,
mercy, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the Wolf,
Orbo the Hungry, Staka the Winter Storm.
^^ Name me by my title. The Snow Queen, the Wolf-King of Winter.

^^ What feature reveals this fairy’s wintry nature?
^^ What are this fairy’s hands like? What are its teeth like? Its eyes?
good effect?
244
֍
Witch-kind
֍
C alculating, kind, unflinching and inward-looking, full

of half-truths and powers. Plays common to the kind: to make foul seem
fair, to reveal the worst.
^^ Beauty, gifts, music, mystery, romance, tragedy, —.

^^ Acclaim, a boon granted, my honest delight, my friendship, sighs,
toasts, —.
^^ Kindness, laughter, tears, thanks, the truth, —.
For my name:
Sawbite John.
^^ Choose a familiar title and a name or word: Cousin Morris, Granny
Glass.
^^ Choose a fanciful name and the name of my kind. Lyaselle the Witch,
Orbo the Witch, Staka the Witch.
Cheesewall.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other witches?
^^ Was this fairy ever a mortal human being? What feature of their
mortal humanity do they still keep?
^^ What animal does this fairy favor? In what way?
245
֍
Wizard-kind
֍
M iscalculating, thoughtless, indifferent and long-

looking, full of arcane impulses and unmet needs. Plays common to the
kind: to bluster, malign, and threaten with unlikely horrors.
^^ Low comedy, distraction, escape, titillation, pathos, —.

^^ Applause & cheers, expressions of immoderate delight, magical
curiosities I’ll come after later to get back, an invitations to remain, an
invitations to return, toasts, words of praise, —.
^^ My respect, a magical treasure, the truth, —.
For my name:
Enchantress, Orbo the Wizard, Staka the Mage.

^^ What feature makes this fairy stand out from other wizards?
^^ Was this fairy ever a mortal human being? What feature of their
mortal humanity do they still keep?
^^ What feature or affectation reveals this fairy to be a wizard?
^^ What habit or mannerism does this fairy always exhibit?
^^ What animal does this fairy favor? In what way?
246
֍
World-kind
֍
T he wind, the sky, the sea, the mountain, the forest,

the river, the island, the thunderstorm. Vast, impersonal, eternal and
ever-changing, full of generosity and danger. Plays common to the kind: to
overwhelm, to stand in effigy.
^^ Beauty, mystery, oneness, the truth, —.

^^ Acorns, apples, dry leaves, fruit, my protection, my respect, roses, pure
water, wildflowers, —.
^^ A boon granted, a promise, tears, —.
For my name:
^^ Choose a syllable or two, and the thing I am. Taph the Summer Sky,
Ula the River.
^^ Name me by my title. Queen Mountain, King Sun.

^^ What feature reveals this fairy’s true magnitude?
^^ What feature reveals this fairy’s nature?
^^ What’s this fairy’s body like, when it chooses a body?
247
֍
Other Kinds
֍
T he Brown-furred Scurrying Kinds;

Flora-kinds and Tree-root-kinds;
Stone-kinds and Thunder-kinds;
The Folk of the Air;
Thimble-stealers, Summer-sprites;
Working-kinds and Playing-kinds;
Border goblins, Butter-goblins;
Goblins of the vat and keg;
Mine-thumpers, Door-knockers, Cat-chasers, and Chimney-men;
The Thistle-crowned Hosts;
Waiting-kinds and Walking-kinds;
Strangler-kinds and Changeler-kinds;
Stealers of Treasure, of Life, of Love, of Worse;
Nightmares under the mortal sky;
Steeple-sitters and Fence-pullers;
Dullers of knives;
Unkindly-kinds;
And those of us of no kind at all.
Plays common to the kind (invent 2):
^^ What is in our nature to do; what we can do at need; what we find
ourselves doing unthinking; what we hold in reserve; what we long
to do, but rarely can; what we do in secret; what we’re capable of, but
must never do.
From the circus, we crave (invent or choose 1 or more):

^^ What we already have, but more; what we can never have, but dream
of; what we find fearful but fascinating; what we have only tasted
before; what keeps us bound, but safe; what we lack in our own
natures; what we see others enjoying.
^^ Action, comedy, danger, vicarious justice, mystery, pathos, romance,
tragedy, the truth, violence, —.
248
If you please us, we’ll freely give you (invent or choose 1 or more):
^^ What comes easily to us; what we find abundant in our nature or our
environment; what we have in plenty; what we share together.
^^ Acclaim, applause & cheers, fairy coins, laughter, an opportunity to
perform again, roses, toasts & cheers, —.
We could give you, but we value and hold back (invent or choose 1 or 2):
^^ What we can do, but humbles or costs us; what we crave, but have
little of; what we must invest ourselves in; what we must sacrifice to
have.
^^ Boons granted, bowed heads, our love, our mercy, our protection,
promises, our tears, our thanks, the truth; wishes granted, —.
For our names:

Sawbite John.
Squirrel Captain, Orbo Thunder-hill, Staka the Changeling.
Cheesewall.
^^ Name me by my title. The Drowned King, the Lady Understairs.

^^ What feature reveals this fairy’s nature?
249
֍
NPCs in the Circus
֍
T he NPCs in the circus are the circus players’

supporting cast. They’re competent, hard-working, and they don’t steal the
scene. Use them to make the circus players’ characters look good and to set
them up for success.
To create an NPC in the circus, in any order:
^^ List their place(s) in the circus, as follow, and their special play(s).
^^ Choose their kind, as for any NPC. List their common plays.
^^ Choose what they hope for and what they offer.
^^ Choose their name & pronouns.
^^ Choose imagery.
The NPC’s place in the circus (choose 1 or 2):

^^ A performer in an opening act or a warm-up act. Special play: to
prime the audience.
^^ A performer in a flash act. Special play: to hold the audience's attention
while other things are underway.
^^ A performer in a backup act or accompaniment. Special play: to
highlight the performance.
^^ A talker, whose job is to bring an audience to the performance. Special
play: to oversell the show.
^^ An advance, whose job is to go ahead and set up the circus’ arrival.
Special play: to greet the circus with bad news.
^^ A worker. Special play: to bring a problem to a planner or a problem-
solver. Circus workers' jobs include: cook, costumes, hair & makeup,
laundry, lookout, props, provisioner, roustabout, ticket-taker, and any
others you can think of.
250
The NPC hopes for (choose 1 or more):
^^ I hope for [x]’s attention.
^^ I hope for a chance to shine.
^^ I hope for just my fair cut.
^^ I hope for [x]’s loyalty.
^^ I hope for [x]’s love.
^^ I hope for [x]’s gratitude.
^^ I hope to surpass [x] in talent and skill.
^^ I hope for the smooth, easy, and professional working of the circus.
^^ I hope for the crowd’s acclaim.
^^ I hope for drama in my relationships.
^^ I hope for travel, novelty, and adventure.
^^ I hope for —.
The NPC offers (choose 1 or more):
^^ I offer a shoulder to cry on.
^^ I offer a sympathetic ear.
^^ I offer a professional ally.
^^ I offer a port in the storm.
^^ I offer comfortable companionship.
^^ I offer unwavering loyalty.
^^ I offer a fruitful working relationship.
^^ I offer good advice.
^^ I offer really bad advice.
^^ I offer —.
It’s up to you as MC how, when, whether, and how much to bring the
circus NPCs into play. You might only bring them into play to add bulk to
the circus’ shows, at the circus players’ requests; you might bring them into
play in every session, almost every scene, to round out the circus’ backstage
life; or you might bring them into play only as “guest stars” when a partic-
ular occasion or particular NPC in the audience calls for them. It’s always
your call.
251
֍
An Example Occasion & NPCs:
The Summer Hunt
֍
Choices
The Occasion:
^^ In Fairyland: The Celebration of the Hunt.
The Celebration:
^^ The celebration is a ritual reenactment of a hunt, with some celebrants
playing the role of hunter and some playing the role of quarry.
The Hunt:
^^ An easy choice: Predators hunting prey. I’ll write the hunters up as
Fairy Nobility; their special play is to course the quarry. I’ll write the
quarry up as Wild-kind; their special play is to defy the hunt.
The Season:
^^ The Summer Hunt ritually negotiates harvest, forage, and hunting
rights between two fairy courts: the Court of Honey and the Wild
Court of the neighboring wood. It climaxes with a real bout between
champions, with the winner securing rights for their side in the
coming autumn.
Consequently, if the Honey-Court’s Champion wins, the laziness of
summer can continue, but if the Champion of the Woods wins, the
Honey-Court must hurry their harvest ahead of the Wild Court’s
autumn foraging, so it marks summer’s end.
The Circus:
^^ An easy choice: The circus was invited here by the Court of Honey to
perform in celebration of the hunt.
Before the climactic bout, here on the Honey-Court’s side, there’ll be
contests to choose its champion. The circus is scheduled to judge these
contests. In the past, the contestant champions have taken judgments
against them poorly; better to have outsiders do it.
252
^^ The winning side’s customarily obliged to settle accounts for the entire
celebration. The circus was invited by the Honey-Court, to celebrate
on the Honey-Court’s side, so if the Wild Court wins, they’ll decline
to pay the circus.
Individual Hunters:
^^ A contestant champion: the most accomplished hunter, swift, sure,
fleet of foot: the Honey-Court’s favorite. I’ll write them up as Fairy
Nobility; their special play is to bungle something.
^^ A contestant champion: the most cruel hunter, who loves the moment
of killing. I’ll write them up as Fairy Nobility; their special play is to
reveal their own heart.
^^ A contestant champion: the most experienced hunter, slower, more
careful, less certain. I’ll write them up as Fairy Nobility; their special
play is to stay someone back.
^^ In charge of the celebration: the shapeshifter, whose duty is to become
like the quarry, and so predict or enact its course. I’ll write them up as
Fairy Nobility; their special play is to lose themself.
The Quarry’s Allies:
^^ The calling bird, who cries the quarry to flee before the hunters come
near. I’ll write them up as Wild-kind; their special play is to warn
away.
In the Order of Events:
^^ 3. The hunt represents the contests to choose the champion. There
are three contests for the players’ characters to judge: hide-and-seek, a
foot race, and a contest of thrown spears, each supposed to prove the
contestant’s skill as a hunter.
Who Greets the Circus, and How Do They Play it?
^^ The shapeshifter, who’s in charge of the proceedings. They’ll play it
easy, welcoming, and a little weird.
Additional Imagery:
^^ The verge between woods and meadow, pavilions and bonfires on
the grassy fields below an overshadowing forest. Singing, dancing,
feasting. A rolling golden moon. Shooting stars. In the woods, the
Wild Court is conducting their own celebration, quiet and intense.
253
Under Hollow Hills Presents:
The Summer Hunt
T he Summer Hunt is an ancient rite and celebration

between the Court of Honey and the Wild Court of the neighboring
woods. It’s centered around a real bout between champions, with the
winning side holding rights of forage, harvest, and hunt in the coming
autumn. It’s a peaceful way to negotiate who has plenty and who might go
hungry, that could otherwise easily turn violent.
The circus is invited to attend on the side of the Honey-Court, to
feast and sing, to judge the contests that will decide our champion, and to
perform in celebration of the victor, whether our champion, or theirs!
NPCs
The Honey-Court at large:
^^ Our role: Celebrants of the ritual hunt; predators hunting prey. Play:
to course the quarry.
^^ Our kind: Fairy Nobility. Plays: to fall in love, to impose their will.
^^ From the circus, we crave: Flattery. We secretly crave: The truth.
^^ We have to give freely: Courteous applause and toasts.
^^ We value and hold back: Their bowed heads, real tears.
^^ Some individuals: Amia Moon-crowned (she/her); Olice the
Shooting Star (they/them); Parathem the Bright (he/him), their king,
host of the celebration.
The Shapeshifter:
^^ My role: The host of the proceedings. Play: to lose myself.
^^ My kind: Fairy Nobility. Plays: to fall in love, to impose my will.
^^ From the circus, I crave: Mystery.
^^ I have to give freely: My love.
^^ I value and hold back: A boon I’ll grant.
^^ My name: The Shapeshifter (they/them).
^^ What crown do I wear? Antlers.
254
The most accomplished hunter:
^^ My role: A contestant champion. Play: to bungle something.
^^ From the circus, I crave: Victory.
^^ I have to give freely: Roses.
^^ My name: Sabret Green-Spear (she/her)
^^ What makes me beautiful? My ease and confidence.
The most cruel hunter:
^^ My role: A contestant champion. Play: to reveal my own heart.
^^ From the circus, I crave: Victory.
^^ I have to give freely: Words of praise.
^^ I value and hold back: My bowed head.
^^ My name: Cylren the Hunter (he/him)
^^ What feature do I have in common with an animal? Hawks’ eyes.
The most experienced hunter:
^^ My role: A contestant champion. Play: to stay someone back.
^^ From the circus, I crave: The truth.
^^ I have to give freely: Courteous applause.
^^ My name: Tiann Swift-River (he/him)
^^ What makes me ugly? My closed, guarded expression.
The calling bird:
^^ My role: The ally of the Champion of the Wild Court. Play: to warn
away.
^^ My kind: Wild-kind. Plays: to lead a chase, to turn at bay.
^^ From the circus, I crave: Oneness; that is, their allyship.
^^ I have to give freely: Thanks.
^^ I value and hold back: An invitation to perform elsewhere.
^^ My name: Doni the Jay (it/it)
^^ What’s my most beautiful feature? My gorgeous, croaking, grating,
screeching, loud voice. I show it off to excellent effect.
255
The quarry:
^^ My role: The Champion of the Wild Court of the Woods. Play: to
defy the hunt.
^^ My kind: Wild-kind. Plays: to lead a chase, to turn at bay.
^^ From the circus, I crave: Music.
^^ I have to give freely: Laughter.
^^ I value and hold back: My loyalty.
^^ My name: Brown (she/her). (“I don’t know who their champion is.
When I asked for a name, they seemed confused. All they could finally
agree to was ‘Brown.’”)
^^ What wild animal do I favor? I’m a brown bear like literally 15 feet
tall. I shoulder trees out of the way.
256
Chapter 8:
The Tour
Rules
^^ Once you’ve played a few sessions, if you think you’ll keep playing, sit
down together and plan your tour.
^^ On a tour sheet, list your shows up until now, and plan four future
shows, the tent-pole shows of your planned touring season.
^^ To plan a show, list its place & occasion, what your appearance there
will likely include, who your likely audience will be, and what reward
you expect to receive.
^^ In play, use your tour sheet to track your shows as you put them on,
and to answer the MC’s questions about your upcoming shows.
^^ MC, in prep, use the circus’ tour sheet to choose and write up your
occasions. When they don’t match, take it as an opportunity to think
flexibly and choose an occasion that’s fun and fitting.
^^ In play, an unexpected occasion like a closed bridge, or a mishap like
a misstep between worlds, can put the circus off-schedule. When
this happens, decide all together whether the circus has missed their
planned show, or whether they can still make it in time.
257
֍
The Tour
֍
O nce you’ve played a few sessions, if it looks like you’re

going to keep playing, you might want to sit down together and take a
longer-term look at your tour.
Take a tour sheet and fill it out together.
First, list the shows you’ve already played. List each one by name,
and whether it was in fairyland, the mortal human world, or between the
worlds.
Next, plan four future shows. A complete tour is thirteen shows, so
maybe you have ten more shows to go, or nine, or however many, before
your tour’s done. For now, though, you’re only going to plan four: your
tent-pole shows, the important shows around which you’re organizing your
whole touring season.
Your tent-pole shows might be your favorite shows that you always play
and never skip, valuable opportunities to perform that you don’t usually
get, or command performances you wouldn’t dare miss — but they don’t
have to be. You’re the Circus Under the Hollow Hills. You go where you
choose, and you set your own calendar. If you make one of your tent-pole
shows a small child’s birthday party in a vacant lot, and blow off the invita-
tion of one of fairyland’s great crowns, who can say you’ve chosen wrong?
So: plan four future shows. Plan two in fairyland, and two in the
mortal human world. Space them out in the calendar with room for other
shows between them, however you like.
258
Planning a Show
To plan a show, choose:
^^ Where will it be, and what’s the occasion?
^^ What will your appearance likely include?
^^ Who is your likely audience?
^^ What reward do you expect to receive?
Where will it be, and what’s the occasion?
For a place in fairyland, make up a place name. Choose a descriptive
name, use a fairy’s name, or make up a name that sounds like nonsense.
Examples: Tattle Cross, the Court of the Ivy Queen, Widen Road, Porrich
Quatter, the Wild Wood, the Goblin Sawmill.
For a place in the mortal human world, choose a real place anywhere
within about a day’s drive of where you’re sitting. Ideally, it should be some-
place you know well and can describe with ease, perhaps in several seasons
or on several different occasions. Examples: a local beach or swimming
hole, a farm or farmer’s market, a local downtown, a city park, state park or
national park, a vacant lot in your city or a city nearby, a local attraction, a
wild place.
If, as a group, you don’t share local landmarks, you can try to limit
yourself to places the MC knows, but you don’t need to. If you choose a
place that you know well but the MC doesn’t, then when the time comes,
all you have to do is take responsibility for helping the MC to set the scene.
For the occasion, choose 1:
^^ An annual (or otherwise) convention, conference, or meeting, like a
hobby convention, a music festival, a conference of local historians, or
a Witch-Moot.
^^ A seasonal celebration or festival, like a winter carnival, a harvest fair,
or May Day on the Green.
^^ A personal celebration or observance, like someone’s birthday, coming-
of-age, naming-day, wedding, graduation, funeral, or memorial.
^^ A traditional or civic occasion specific to the place, like the opening of
a bridge or park, a walking tour of historical sites, the County Fair, or
the Tribute Day of a fairy court.
^^ No particular occasion: you’ll be there to put on your show, and that’s
occasion enough.
^^ An occasion of your own invention.
259
What will your appearance likely include?
Most likely — but not always! — it’ll include putting on your show.
It might also include officiating a ceremony, judging a contest, keeping
the official count, giving a blessing, giving peace, telling or changing some-
one’s fortune, giving or receiving a gift, solemnizing an act as witnesses,
standing up for someone or in for someone, opening a door long-shut,
closing it again, reenacting an event, offering mercy, acting the champion
for someone in dispute, stealing children, or — or anything! Name it.
Who is your likely audience?
List them. It’s probably obvious from the place and the occasion who
they’ll be, but you can brainstorm and throw some curves, if you like.
Examples: the festival-goers; the buyers and sellers of the market; the
elected Harvest Beauty; the Baby Regent of Owls and their parent, the
Crowned Owl; let’s say that there’ll be a mortal human being there, lost in
fairyland, who I want to meet, outside the show; the tax collectors of the
King of the Forest.
What reward to you expect to receive?
^^ The proceeds of your ticket sales, less a cut to the Minister of Revels?
^^ Whatever you can steal from the unwary crowd?
^^ The thanks and largesse of the Crowned Owl?
^^ Settling a dispute with your rival?
^^ Pursuing your interest in a potential love?
^^ The pure unstinting bounty of the crowd’s acclaim?
^^ A single wish granted by the First Spider, Sister of All Witches?
It can be anything. Name it.
List your tent-pole shows on your tour sheet, leaving space between
them, and you’re done.
Circus Players: the Tour In Play

From here on, until the end of your tour, record your shows on your
tour sheet as you perform them.
At the beginning of every session, the MC asks you about your next
show after this one. Check your tour sheet. If your next show’s going to be
one of your scheduled tent-pole shows, say so, and give the MC the details.
Otherwise, answer the MC’s questions to invent one as normal.
260
You can plan and add more shows to your tour whenever you choose.
You can also strike planned shows from your tour.
Missing a Show:
You might find yourself unable to make one of your planned shows
after all. You might have trouble crossing over into the correct world, for
instance, or a mishap like a missed ferry or a closed bridge might delay you,
beyond your control. There’s no given penalty for missing a show, only the
lost opportunity, so get with the MC and choose:
^^ You’ve missed the show, and there’s no remedy for it.
^^ You’ve missed the show, offending someone, and you’ll hear about it
from them soon.
^^ You’ve missed the show, and alack alas, you haven’t been missed. You
may take offense if you wish.
^^ You can still make the show, in the nick of time.
MC: the Tour In Prep

You’ll find that the occasions of the circus’ planned shows don’t
always perfectly match your prep occasions. Some do: if the circus plans
to perform for the wedding of the Daughter of Ivy to the Crowned Owl,
you can write it up as a Betrothing and not give it another thought. But if
the Crooked Wand has been invited by the witches of the Witch-Moot to
attend their Winter Conference, there’s no such obvious choice of occasion.
Which should you choose?
The answer is: it’s your call. There’s no wrong answer, so think flexibly,
and choose whichever seems fun and fitting.
You might write it up as a Betrothing: maybe at the Witch-Moot
the witches all renew their vows. Or as a Celebration of the Hunt, with
the witches ceremonially reenacting their memories of the 16th & 17th
Centuries. Or as a Gift-Giving Occasion, a chance for the witches to foster
friendships in reciprocity and show off the various ways they’ve prospered
since last time.
You can always choose to write it up as a Freeform Occasion as well.
Interrupting the Tour:
You can choose to interrupt the tour whenever you like, inserting an
occasion that the circus had no plan for. Prepping a Closed Bridge is the
most obvious way to do this, but you can treat any occasion the same way.
261
Maybe the circus’ road takes them through the Goblin Market, and
they didn’t realize it until that moment. Maybe a chance encounter with
a fairy crown on the road obliges them to a detour, to a Betrothing, a
Gift-Giving Occasion, or the Breaking of the Ice. Maybe the mystery of
a Harvest Murder has elfin soldiers setting up roadblocks and diverting
traffic until they can solve it!
When you decide to interrupt the circus with an unexpected show
like this, you might decide that it means that they miss their next planned
show, but they’ll probably consider it good form for you to let them make it
in time anyway, after all.
262
Conclusion:
Rules Summary
The Circus & the Game

^^ The game is about the performers and crew of a circus traveling
through fairyland and the mortal world.
^^ Each of you has a role that you play, called your playbook. Your
playbook gives you a unique role in the conversation, and special
conversational rules you can use.
^^ One of you takes the role of Mistress of Ceremonies. You’re
responsible for the places the circus performs and the audiences it
performs for. You prepare a unique playbook for each performance.
^^ The rest of you take the roles of the circus’ performers and workers,
according to the playbooks you choose.
^^ Your playbook gives you “plays” you can make: rules you can follow
to expand the conversation or change its direction. When you make a
play, roll dice and proceed according to your roll.
^^ Every session of the game is a new place for you to perform and a
new audience to perform for. You arrive, you get the lay of the land,
you meet your audience, you plan your performance, and finally you
perform. Your performance has the power to change things here, so
you decide how to use that power.
^^ The game and its system of plays are designed to protect and preserve
your consent and communication as a player, and also to be compatible
with any support & communication tools you choose to bring with
you from outside the game.
263
Circus Playbooks
^^ Choose a playbook.
^^ Follow the rules in your playbook to create your character.
^^ At the end of creating your character, introduce your character to
the group, then go around for “bindings,” special rules that make the
relationships between you more concrete and more unique.
^^ The Mistress of Ceremonies doesn’t choose a circus playbook.
Plays & Consequences

^^ Generally, you say what your character says, does, thinks, and intends,
and the Mistress of Ceremonies says where you are and what’s
happening there. When you want to get to the bottom of something,
change what’s happening, or take control for a moment, you do it by
making a play.
^^ You can make all of the obvious plays, and you can make your own
playbook’s plays.
^^ Always choose a play that makes sense to you, given the circumstances
and your own goals and interests.
^^ Announce your play by name.
^^ Follow the procedure in the play precisely. When you roll, add or
subtract your modifier for that play in your playbook. A sum of 10+ is
the strongest play; a sum of 7–9 is a strong play; and a sum of 6 or less
means you’ve missed your play.
^^ You choose your play and make your roll. The play tells you what the
outcome and consequences are.
^^ In addition to the direct consequences listed in your plays, there are
both short-term consequences that the Mistress of Ceremonies can
add to your play, at their option, and long-term consequences that
your play might invoke: stepping toward summer or winter, violence,
insults, favors, and love.
264
Sessions & Shows
^^ Play the game in sessions, with each session being an occasion for the
circus to perform.
^^ Begin the session by talking briefly with the MC about this show’s
place in the circus’ tour, and how the tour’s going so far.
^^ It’s the MC’s job to tell you where the circus arrives, who’s there, and
what’s going on. You can help by asking questions.
^^ Before you plan your show, get the lay of the land. Figure out what this
audience wants from you, and what you want from them.
^^ When you’re ready, plan your show. Give each character a role to play.
Include NPC performers if you choose.
^^ Put on your show, using obvious plays and your playbook plays.
^^ During your show, you have the power to change things here. Use
your power to make your show impactful and consequential.
^^ After your show, wrap up any loose ends.
^^ End the session by choosing to step toward winter or toward summer,
and telling the MC where you’re going to perform next.
The MC’s Timelines

^^ Before your first session, write up an occasion, a place and an audience
for the circus. This’ll be the circus’ first show.
^^ You can have the circus players choose and create their characters in
advance, or all together at your first session.
^^ Begin the session by telling the circus about the place and audience
you’ve prepped, and asking them about the (imaginary) show they
most recently performed.
^^ Begin play by telling the circus where they are, who’s there, who greets
them, and what’s happening, then by asking them how they want to
play it.
265
^^ During the session, help them figure out what their audience wants
from them, and what they want from their audience. When they’re
ready, help them plan their show on a Playbill sheet, then help them
follow their plan to put their show on. Remind them to make their
occasion plays.
^^ After the show, wrap up any loose ends. End the session by asking
them where they plan to perform next; whether, reflecting on the
session, they’d like to step toward summer or winter; and whether
they’d like to schedule a next time to play.
^^ Between sessions, choose new occasions for the circus to perform and
write them up.
^^ Play subsequent sessions just as the first, following the circus wherever
it goes.
The MC’s Principles & Plays

^^ As Mistress of Ceremonies, your job isn’t to play a fairy in the circus,
but to create and play places and occasions for the circus to perform,
and audiences for it to perform for.
^^ You have principles and rules for prep and for play.
^^ You have moves to make on your own behalf, moves to make for your
NPCs, and moves to make for the places in play themselves.
^^ Follow your principles, follow your rules, and make your plays!
Occasions
To prep for a session, write up an occasion for the circus to perform:
^^ Choose an occasion.
^^ Follow its rules to write it up.
^^ Write up its NPCs, following the rules in Chapter 8: The Mistress of
Ceremonies’ Characters (NPCs).
^^ Plan the moment of the circus’ arrival.
266
The MC’s Characters (NPCs)
To prep for a session, follow the rules to write up your occasion’s NPCs:
^^ First write up your occasion, following the rules in Chapter 7:
Occasions: Places to Perform and Audiences to Perform For, to create the
list of NPCs you need to write up.
^^ For each NPC, list their kind, their role, their plays, their name &
pronouns, and their imagery.
^^ List what they crave from the circus, and the largesse they have to give.
^^ For the NPCs in the circus, choose their place in the circus instead of
their role in the occasion, and choose what they want from and offer to
the circus players’ characters.
The Tour
^^ Once you’ve played a few sessions, if you think you’ll keep playing, sit
down together and plan your tour.
^^ On a tour sheet, list your shows up until now, and plan four future
shows, the tent-pole shows of your planned touring season.
^^ To plan a show, list its place & occasion, what your appearance there
will likely include, who your likely audience will be, and what reward
you expect to receive.
^^ In play, use your tour sheet to track your shows as you put them on,
and to answer the MC’s questions about your upcoming shows.
^^ MC, in prep, use the circus’ tour sheet to choose and write up your
occasions. When they don’t match, take it as an opportunity to think
flexibly and choose an occasion that’s fun and fitting.
^^ In play, an unexpected occasion like a closed bridge, or a mishap like
a misstep between worlds, can put the circus off-schedule. When
this happens, decide all together whether the circus has missed their
planned show, or whether they can still make it in time.
267
Appendix:
Notes & Downloads
Credits & Thanks: To come.
Downloads: lumpley.games/under-hollow-hills
a lumpley game
268

Under Hollow Hills Complete Text Preview

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Under Hollow Hills Complete Text Preview

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Under Hollow Hills Complete Text Preview

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What is the overall structure and purpose of the game?

What is the overall structure and purpose of the game?

What are some of the character playbooks described in the game?

What are some of the character playbooks described in the game?

Meguey & Vincent Baker

Under Hollow Hills

©2021 by Meguey Baker & D. Vincent Baker. Do not distribute.

Chapter 1: Circus Playbooks 17

Chapter 3: Sessions & Shows 101

Intermission: A Miscellany 121

Chapter 5: The Mistress of Ceremonies’ 146

Chapter 6: Occasions: Places to Perform 155

Chapter 8: The Tour 257

Appendix: Notes & Downloads 272

T here is a traveling circus under the Hollow Hills.

& The Game

B efore you play, choose a playbook.

W hen you create your character, you create two lists

Y our playbook gives you both a role to play in the game,

T he game follows the circus’ tour. You come to a place

S ince Under Hollow Hills plays out in your

T o create your character, choose your playbook, then

Y ou are the Boondoggle Hob. You’re goblin kind:

Boondoggle Hob Plays

When you’re wounded, shocked, affronted or dismayed, and you shrug it

Y ou are the Chieftain Mouse. You’re mousey kind:

Chieftain Mouse Plays

Y ou are the Crooked Wand. You’re witchy kind:

Crooked Wand Plays

Y ou are the Crowned Stag. You’re fairy nobility: regal,

Crowned Stag Plays

Y ou are the Feather-Cloak. You’re shifty kind, and a

Y ou are the Interloper. You’re a human being who’s

Y ou are the Lantern Jack. You’re pisky kind:

Lantern Jack Plays

Y ou are the Lostling. You’re a human being who once

Y ou’re no “kind” of fairy, you’re the Nightmare Horse,

Nightmare Horse Plays

Y ou are the Seeker. You’re a human being who’s come

Y ou are the Stick Figure. You’re a made thing given life

Y ou are the Troll. You’re stone troll kind: powerful,

Y ou are the Winding Rose. You’re flora kind: tough,

Winding Rose Plays

“I ’m Harebrake the Goblin, the Boondoggle Hob. Being

“ I ’m Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand. You can call

“M y character’s Jill Cowdrey, the Interloper. She’s

“I ’m Tip the Lantern Jack. I’m pisky kind: enchanting,

“M y name is the Teapot Girl. My playbook is the

I nstead of playing out on a playing field, on a board, or in

T hey’re called “obvious” plays because they’re plays that

^^ The circus is performing at the River Queen’s winter palace, here to

^^ Meanwhile, Timothy Bones the Crooked Wand has gone directly to

Y our playbook has four plays that are unique to you.

Timothy Bones, the Crooked Wand:

Fleeting Consequences & Momentum

A t need or at whim, and especially when you miss a

A s you travel and perform with the circus, step from

G iving and taking offense is a major fairy pastime.

W hen someone does a favor for you, you’re beholden

E ach session of play is an occasion for the circus to