What Is Wrong With Sylvan Creatures?

[Gez]

Fairy tales can be quite gritty...

Personally, I like sylvan folks. Elusive, enigmatic, capricious, changing... Fey are, in my vision of them, to the prime material plane what outsiders are to outer planes: mystical denizens tied to their world in ways that normal folk have trouble to understand. Gnomes (except the madprofessorboomboomomatic archetype, which I loath and despise) and elves (except the melnibonoldorelf variety, which I loath and despise) have more empathy with them; and on the other side, goblins, xvart and kobolds have some ties with the unseelie court; but dwarves, orcs, and especially humans are puzzled by these strange folk.

What's great with fey is that they aren't just combat monsters. It depends on the PCs if the fey are friends or foes, but efficient diplomacy with the sylvan folk isn't always what seems straightforward.

As I don't DM intensively (sorry Alo ), I didn't had the time yet to have the PCs meet fey... But the time is coming, slowly and patiently...

Beside, I'm happy to have the Tome of Horrors. Brownie, sprite, atomie, quickling, buckown, nereid, and even the killmoulis !

 

[Marius Delphus]

It's the prancing. That constant prancing gets on my nerves. And don't even mention the flitting, frolicking and capering.

Am I the only one who heard the voice of Agent Smith/Elrond in my head?

The "trouble" with fey is that they're not "fey" enough. The fey are aliens, incomprehensible, and I really don't think they should have Good alignments at all. The affairs of Nature are not those of Men....

 

[seasong]

Overall, I like sylvan creatures, but they engender a particular campaign atmosphere which traditionally goes better with fairy tales than gritty heroism. It's the prancing. That constant prancing gets on my nerves. And don't even mention the flitting, frolicking and capering. Yeesh. You'll never see a mind flayer caper, that's for sure.

Now, see, that's just all wrong and mixed up. A mind flayer who is capering is one of the TOP TEN WAYS to scare hell out of your players. I mean, really, just put on a little creepy, quiet carnival music, and let them see it reflected in a mirror as they approach the Great Temple of Cthulu.

If it titters or cackles occasionally, so much the better.

 

[Desdichado]

The Plane of Faery in the appendices of the Manual of the Planes makes for a good homeland for darker, grittier (and yet more traditional and "true") fey and sylvan creatures, IMO. The Monsternomicon also has some reallly scary fey creatures in it, like the Rusalka, the Gristle and Flay, etc.

 

[Storminator]

I'm about to unleash a horde of fey into my city PBeM game. The players have released a Pit Fiend into a highly religious city, and rather than bring in more demons, which could both compete with him and raise suspicion, he'll bring in fey.

I bought the Monsternomicon and flipped it open randomly...Cask Imp! I've got a whole campaign based on that little sucker!

PS

 

[Kai Lord]

As one of the few fans of Ridley Scott's "Legend", I've always enjoyed combining fickle and alluring fey with high fantasy and pulp heroics.

 

[Starman]

Originally posted by Piratecat
It's the prancing. That constant prancing gets on my nerves. And don't even mention the flitting, frolicking and capering.

I don't know about anyone else, but I read this, then looked at P-cat's avatar, checked the post again, looked back at the avatar and thought man, if anyone prances it's that cat. Look at that grin. That gleam in his eye. He prances alright.

Originally posted by Kai Lord
As one of the few fans of Ridley Scott's "Legend",

Sign me up on that list of "few fans." I love that movie.

Back on topic, I haven't used a lot of fey in my games. I never feel like I could really get the carefree, frollicking, prancing thing down. Maybe I should ask Piratecat for advice...

Starman

 

[LGodamus]

my fey are more often than not chaotic neutral .......... even fey on the prime material ....are either with the seelie or unseelie court ... the seelie court arent good however just indifferent towards mortals where as the unseelie are activel malign....
so even when dealing with "good" faeries it is not safe as they generally value mortal life less than would normally be expected.

 

[mistergone]

Yeah, I use sylvan creatures...

...for TARGET PRACTICE.


And oh yeah, look for my new exciting game coming soon:

Faerie: The Prancing

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

It's the prancing. That constant prancing gets on my nerves. And don't even mention the flitting, frolicking and capering.

Am I the only one who heard the voice of Agent Smith/Elrond in my head?

ROFL
It's the pine smell. I feel... Saturated by it.

Sign me up as another Legend fan. It seemed like it took forever for it to come out on DVD after they said they were working on it.

Fey are dangerous because they are fickle and have a completely different value system from the rest of us. Don't tell me an amoral, easily offended asthete isn't a deadly combination.
The fey creatures in Legend are a good example. They were ready to kill Jack just because he realized too late that he had a selfish, impulsive, moody, demanding girlfriend. There goes the human race. Oona was going to leave him to rot because he wouldn't cheat on Lily. That brings us to lesson number two; The only thing more dangerous than a faerie or a female, is a female faerie.


*Ducks and runs*