How to Make the Fey Less Twee

ad_hoc · Feb 5, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
It's not terribly difficult to present horrifying creatures, but it is difficult to get people to take horror seriously. It's a problem I've had attempting to run Ravenloft and CoC. There's no giant flesh-eating, mind-warping monster in front of their faces to truly terrorize them, it's just words and your attempt to describe the indescribable and it's difficult to describe the indescribable without making it sound silly. Like, have you ever looked at pictures of great old ones? It's more goofy than it is terrifying. Granted in person it would be terrifying. But as a picture or a description they're all well...pretty describable.

The first rule of horror is that the unseen monster is always scarier. People will imagine the worst.

The key to horror in RPGs is to slowly ratchet up the tension over the course of a session. The trick here is that it needs to be done fresh each session. If you go straight into it then the horror elements will come off as comical. The ever looming threat of what might be around the corner coupled with depleting resources and unclear advancements creates the tension. Horror games are about small victories which might just be survival.

RhaezDaevan · Feb 5, 2019

Model the Fey after real-life alien stories. Strange lights and sounds. People disappearing in the night. The few that reappear come back...wrong. Warped minds, mutilated bodies, etc.

MechaTarrasque · Feb 5, 2019

I think of fey as being some of the most "morality tale" monsters: as soon as you do something "bad", they are free to do something bad to you. And of course, "bad" can appear to be somewhat arbitrary (good idea to have some rules in mind, though, part of the fun is for parties to figure out what they can get away with). Since most of them enjoy doing bad things to the guilty (or at least watching it happen), they work as much as they can in the rules to tempt someone to do something "bad." I tend to make it a rule that they have to give the PC's fair warning, but they can be pretty sneaky about it.

My head canon tends to have Big Cosmic Powers inflicting rules on the Feywild (and all who live there). Most fey want to be chaotic, but they are stuck in a lawful world, and they aren't happy about it.

77IM · Feb 5, 2019

The Blair Witch Project could also be viewed as having a fey antagonist.

The more I think about it, the more I think: just run fey the way you would run devils. But file off the "fire and brimstone" serial numbers, and replace them with blood-soaked thorns.

Wiseblood · Feb 5, 2019

You may have your work cut out for you. If you have murder hobos. (John Carpenter’s Vampires comes to mind with their vampire hunters.)

I think the movie Evil Dead might make the fey less twee. (Not Army of Darkness Ash but sawed of his own hand in desperation Ash.)

Or

Make the NPCs around them react to the fey with dread. These NPCs should maximize the fear and terror of the fey’s atrocities while minimizing the PCs deeds of derring-do.

Dessert Nomad · Feb 5, 2019

Hags are a great fey creature for people who think they're twee and nonthreatening. So horrific to look at that you have to make saves to avoid a fear effect, and if you're afraid they can kill you with a glance.

Dannyalcatraz · Feb 5, 2019

RhaezDaevan said:
Model the Fey after real-life alien stories. Strange lights and sounds. People disappearing in the night. The few that reappear come back...wrong. Warped minds, mutilated bodies, etc.

I once did the flipside of this: the Fae “Elves” were actually crashlanded Greys. Their appearance was generated by holographic tech, the time-warping effects of Underhill were created by their ship’s stasis generators.

Leatherhead · Feb 5, 2019

squibbles said:
I suggest watching Pan's Labyrinth for inspiration

Do this, but make your group watch it too.

Then talk them into a Wild Hunt.

Immortal Sun · Feb 5, 2019

ad_hoc said:
The first rule of horror is that the unseen monster is always scarier. People will imagine the worst.

The key to horror in RPGs is to slowly ratchet up the tension over the course of a session. The trick here is that it needs to be done fresh each session. If you go straight into it then the horror elements will come off as comical. The ever looming threat of what might be around the corner coupled with depleting resources and unclear advancements creates the tension. Horror games are about small victories which might just be survival.

True, which tends to lead me to believe that horror just doesn't work in D&D above level 5. There are too many ways to "see" things.

ad_hoc · Feb 5, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
True, which tends to lead me to believe that horror just doesn't work in D&D above level 5. There are too many ways to "see" things.

People have had great success running Ravenloft adventures for a long time.