Frightening Fey

ThaDium · Oct 29, 2006

I'm running a horror style game with Faries as the BBG. Can anyone recommend a source book to me?

ThaDium

Aus_Snow · Oct 29, 2006

Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey . . .?

There are a fair few other sourcebooks on the fey for d20 (let alone for other systems) - which I can list and possibly comment on if that's any use to you - but the above is the closest I could think of to being exactly what you appear to be looking for.

edit --- uh, that's the second time I've tried to link to the product @ drivethrustuff. It keeps CHANGING THE LINK FOR ME. Not only that, but it keeps changing it to a link that doesn't work. Aaargh. Very irritating. Anyway, if you want to get to the actual pdf, go to www . drivethrurpg . com (without the spaces) and search for: 'shadow fey' (without the inverted commas.) It'll be somewhere on the first page of search results.

Grr.

P.S. You could probably find it cheap on eBay, too.

another edit --- I've changed the link so it's (hopefully) pointing to the product at RPGNow, watermarked though it is. . . and yes, it does, though it CHANGES MY LINK AGAIN, this time to enworld's subsection of RPGNow. Could someone please change the coding on this site so that you can post a clean link and have it remain clean? Thank you.

Aus_Snow · Oct 29, 2006

Just out of interest, could someone else please try posting a link to a product at RPGNow and/or drivethrustuff? I wouldn't mind knowing that I'm not going mad.

If it alters whatever you link to, to teh same product (if you're lucky) at enworld's little slice of RPGNow (or whatever), then yay! (I'm not going mad), but on the other hand it doesn't bode well. At all.

WmRAllen67 · Oct 29, 2006

Not a sourcebook, but helpful to mine for ideas--

Butcher's Summer Knight
Feist's Faerie Tale
Goldstein's Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon

You could get by with just the core monster books-- it's all a matter of presentation...

Remember, these are the beings that steal children, dye their hats in your blood (Redcaps), tempt you into drowning (kelpie), kill you with a kiss (the White Lady), and pay a tithe of human souls to the devil every seven years...

Many of the D&D monsters have a basis in faerie legends as well-- the greenhag (Jenny Greenteeth) and the troll (which in Germanic folklore is a dwarf-like sorcerer, transmutation specialist)...

The "Tithe to Hell" idea might work for you, especially since in many stories it's the Seelie Court that has to pay, to ensure the freedom of the Faerie Lands from the Devil. If your players are expecting a "Good Faerie Queen", or if all they know is "Titania" from Shakespeare or "Tinkerbell" from Disney, it should be a big surprise...

Jürgen Hubert · Oct 29, 2006

GURPS Faerie. Not d20, but easily enough to port over and mine for ideas.

And it's a GURPS book. Which means that it has been extensively researched and playtested and used widely beyond its core GURPS audience.

Klaus · Oct 29, 2006

I second the recommendation for VRG to the Shadow Fey.

Disclaimer: I did the artwork for it.

shilsen · Oct 29, 2006

For using faeries as BBEGs, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies is absolutely required reading.

ThaDium · Oct 29, 2006

Thanks All!

I think I'll target Shadow Fey and GURPS Faerie first. They sound like great options.

Anyone have any interesting plot thoughts? I started with fey stealing babies to open a gate between the fey realm and the material world. This is in preperation for invasion.

(The Seelie Court opposes invasion, the Unseelie court is driving it. Get it, Seal-y and Un-Seal-y? Un sealing the gate between the worlds! Ha! ummmmmmmmm... anyway.)

THanks again for the help.

ThaDium

Banshee16 · Oct 30, 2006

ThaDium said:
I think I'll target Shadow Fey and GURPS Faerie first. They sound like great options.

Anyone have any interesting plot thoughts? I started with fey stealing babies to open a gate between the fey realm and the material world. This is in preperation for invasion.

(The Seelie Court opposes invasion, the Unseelie court is driving it. Get it, Seal-y and Un-Seal-y? Un sealing the gate between the worlds! Ha! ummmmmmmmm... anyway.)

THanks again for the help.

ThaDium

It's worth going to www.swordsorcery.com and checking there....I purchased the hardcopy version for $7.18..

Banshee

Jürgen Hubert · Oct 30, 2006

Two powerful faeries make a bet which involves a mortal. This can involve anything from a peasant to a prince. Each side attempts to get the mortal to do something - fall in love with them, kill someone close to him, etc., and they use their considerable faerie powers to sway him to their side. With one exception - they will not mess with his mind. He must make the choice out of his own free will.

What the mortal truly wants does not enter into the equation. In fact, the bet is more interesting if the final result goes against his moral code - that only makes it more challenging.

And the fey will not be constrained by morals and common decency. The only rules they will obey is the ones they have agreed upon at the beginning of the bet, and those all faeries of their type must labor under - and those rules will be obeyed to the letter. Learning those rules might be the poor mortal's only chance of getting through this unbroken - and the only chance of the party to defeat the fey.