Feywild, fey as major powers in D&D: good thing?

[Ahwe Yahzhe]

Oy Fey

...why didn't they do this sooner? I know there was a sense of loyalty to the Tolkien concept of Finnish elves, but the Scottish/Irish/Welsh seelie/sidhe/faerie legends are so much darker and capricious.

If you want to have the concept of the Feywild firmly planted in your brain as a wondrously terrifying place with its own sense of time and place, check out anything by Susanna Clarke. Even if you don't like Jane Austen, her 800-page brick Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is going to be the basis of what Faerie/Feywild will be in my games. Eladrin and fey as whimsical, generous and murderous beings who see magic with their waking eyes.

Man, I really like the options the Feywild opens up for my D&D games. Players will be finally be a little afraid to enter Fairyland...

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

This is one of the few areas where I actually agree and like what is being done with 4e. I've been very meh on how they've handled fey since 1e. Too much light and giddiness and happy,happy.

There was a reason they were called the Fair Folk, when anyone was willing to actually directly reference them at all. The Fey should be frightening, and whimsical, and capricious, even downright mad.

In my games they replaced slaad as the force of unbridled chaos. Beautiful, and ugly, generous and terrible. Cordially inexplicable and mad as hatters by anyone else's standards.

 

[Incenjucar]

I'm just waiting for the first Feywild vs. Far Realm event.

 

[The Little Raven]

The fact that even traditionally "cute" fey are now dangerous makes me happy. Makes me ponder replicating the toadstool ring and fairy event from Quest for Glory I in my first 4e campaign.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I'm just waiting for the first Feywild vs. Far Realm event.

Lol, I find that funny since that is a core-section of my too-be 4e cosmology backstory.

Aberrants who have slept for centuries in the nothingness of the universe (you can see the Lovecraft here) are awaken when the Gods stumble across the Feywild and its sister worlds, left by some unknown being(s). They raise the creatures of the Feywild as their own.

Angered by the Gods intrusion in what the Aberrants had viewed as "their" dead-universe a great war is raged. Essentially the Gods and various Feyfolk (or Chosen in my world), combat the Aberrants for centuries in the end the Gods win but not before the Feywild is destroyed and collapses into the World and parts also sink into the Shadowfell. It is the act of the Feywild collapse that awakens life in the World.

It then goes on into ordinary World backstory.

 

[frankthedm]

I'm just waiting for the first Feywild vs. Far Realm event.

Well, first take

... mad as hatters by anyone else's standards.

And then change the ¹⁰/₆^ths over to δⁿ/π.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I think the introduction of the fey is a great idea, especially if they are dangerous, wild, and unpredictable (as the fey should be.)

You walk into a wild wood and start messing with it, it ain't just the wandering monsters you gotta worry about anymore. There is a *reason* that even powerful Aerdi could not clear the Adri Forest and the Grandwood!

 

[Elphilm]

the Tolkien concept of Finnish elves

The what now?

Tolkien's elves are primarily based on the ljósálfar of Norse myths.

 

[The Eternal GM]

I absolutely think that it is a good thing to try and incorporate the fey as major players into this edition of D&D. They are a huge part of world mythology, and have always lurked around the edges of the game but been stunted by weak definition, awkward write ups and powers, or being a 'nuisance' in play that both DM and player avoided.

But the fae can be cool, I'm certain of it. I've used them in other games and enjoyed them (Pendragon, Ars Magica, Changeling, etc) without difficulty. But I think this is because they were better tied to the game world, setting and rules... Something that they have never been in D&D.

So let's give them a try in 4th Edition. If they prove unpopular, they'll no doubt fade away again and be featured less and less, but no reason not to give them a shot.

 

[DarkKestral]

I've always liked dark fey; they appeal to my love of mythology. After all, the fey were treated with large helpings of respect and fear by the medievals. Even the most kindly could become incredibly vengeful, carrying a grudge for years, just on the basis of a unknowing slight. And most weren't even THAT friendly; many types, mythologically, would kill for the fun of it.

Also, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Hobbos, Kobolds, Orcs, and Trolls were all originally fey before Tolkien reimagined them. They've drifted away from that in popular culture, nowadays, but I wouldn't mind seeing some material that references the old myths either. That's pretty much all of the classic low level enemies, and dire animals occasionally featured in fey stories, so even those have some things that relate. Heck changelings are directly sourced from fey stories, so there is a LOT of material that could be adapted, which makes the glaring omission of powerful fey so surprising. Good dark fey are CREEPY.