What would a "fairy-tale" setting be like?
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Trickstergod
First Post
I'm feeling lazy at the moment, so as opposed to offering up what I believe the elements of a fairy-tale are, I'll instead make two comments:
1) Changeling: the Dreaming. Modern day fairy-tale RPG put out by White Wolf. While not every supplement properly carries out that fairy tale feel, it's as close as you'll likely get, and does quite a good job of it at times, anyway.
2) Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. For that matter, just about anything by Neil Gaiman, but particularly Stardust. Good stuff, and where I would look to for inspiration were I to attempt creating a fairy-tale like setting.
1) Changeling: the Dreaming. Modern day fairy-tale RPG put out by White Wolf. While not every supplement properly carries out that fairy tale feel, it's as close as you'll likely get, and does quite a good job of it at times, anyway.
2) Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. For that matter, just about anything by Neil Gaiman, but particularly Stardust. Good stuff, and where I would look to for inspiration were I to attempt creating a fairy-tale like setting.
Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
I'll back up the Gaiman recommendation.
Though he deals a lot in myth, which I think of as a very distinct category.
Fairy Tales are myths that couldn't be respectable enough to get into the party.
Though he deals a lot in myth, which I think of as a very distinct category.
Fairy Tales are myths that couldn't be respectable enough to get into the party.
s/LaSH
First Post
If any component makes you think Disney, take it to committee and try your darndest to remove that component. If you can't, skirt around it. That's a proper fairy-tale.
Yes, I'm serious. Why do you think I don't have fairies in my fantasy? It's because they aren't fairy-tale enough.
Anyway, some other elements:
Speaking of fairies, you'll want some sort of omnipotent force going around. Magic in fairytales tends to be a lot more omnipotent but a lot more focused, and there's always a way to bypass it - although that knowledge is not common. A lot of the time, it's love that can break the really nasty spells, but a lot of the time it isn't.
A major theme of fairy tales is survival. They were designed to educate children about a harsh world where literacy was for obscure people in distant lands and girls were married off at age 12. So the anything-goes attitude is a no-brainer. What you need is an incentive to do the usual lying, cheating and stealing that all great fairy-tale heroes get up to, and that incentive is often poverty, but sometimes it's just there and no explanation is given.
Hm, this sounds more and more like D&D with the alignment system taken out and some odd spell templates...
Yes, I'm serious. Why do you think I don't have fairies in my fantasy? It's because they aren't fairy-tale enough.
Anyway, some other elements:
Speaking of fairies, you'll want some sort of omnipotent force going around. Magic in fairytales tends to be a lot more omnipotent but a lot more focused, and there's always a way to bypass it - although that knowledge is not common. A lot of the time, it's love that can break the really nasty spells, but a lot of the time it isn't.
A major theme of fairy tales is survival. They were designed to educate children about a harsh world where literacy was for obscure people in distant lands and girls were married off at age 12. So the anything-goes attitude is a no-brainer. What you need is an incentive to do the usual lying, cheating and stealing that all great fairy-tale heroes get up to, and that incentive is often poverty, but sometimes it's just there and no explanation is given.
Hm, this sounds more and more like D&D with the alignment system taken out and some odd spell templates...
Couple of D&D adventures spring to mind as worthy of tracking down if you can:
"The Lost Seneschal", which is included as part of the Mystara supplement "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk" is perhaps the iconic example of D&D gone fairytale. It reads and plays like you're caught up in one, and although linear, the challenges and characters it presents are excellent examples of the genre.
"Legacy of the Liosalfar" from an old Dungeon magazine. Like "The Lost Seneschal", someone goes missing and ends up in fairyland, and the PCs must follow. Although less iconic, it's notable for having quite possibly the best example of a true dark elf NPC (not drow, but dockalfar - evil fey, not S&M dungeon dweller - this guy's worth a thousand of them) in the history of the game.
"The Lost Seneschal", which is included as part of the Mystara supplement "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk" is perhaps the iconic example of D&D gone fairytale. It reads and plays like you're caught up in one, and although linear, the challenges and characters it presents are excellent examples of the genre.
"Legacy of the Liosalfar" from an old Dungeon magazine. Like "The Lost Seneschal", someone goes missing and ends up in fairyland, and the PCs must follow. Although less iconic, it's notable for having quite possibly the best example of a true dark elf NPC (not drow, but dockalfar - evil fey, not S&M dungeon dweller - this guy's worth a thousand of them) in the history of the game.
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hellbender
First Post
If you ever get ahold of a book called The Tolkien Reader, you will find an excellent essay called 'On Fairy Stories' in the section entitled Tree and Leaf.
hellbender
hellbender
Tsyr
Explorer
hellbender said:
That book is one of the required books for a class I'm taking this term
FFG is putting out a suplement called Grimm, which they call "a game of kids trapped in a twisted fairy tale world, written by Richard Dakan of Enter the Zombie fame."... And it's for their Horizon series, which means its a game setting, not just an adventure.
I'll second changeling, but urge you to stick to the core book if you want the fairy-tale feel... The later books just WoD-ize it more and more. Particularly stay away from "Land of Eight Million Dreams", which is one of my favorite suplements, but isn't fairy-tale-esq at all.
I don't think you need any set rules about magic per say... IE, don't have it like "Bob has the Healing Gift, Joe has the Firestarting Gift"... Magic shouldn't really even be common place enough to think of it that way, among humans. Bob is a Healer. Joe is a sorcerer. Both are feared and have strange, horrible powers.
IMO.
Also do keep in mind that a lot of people's new-age conception of fairies as little glittery folk with flowers in their hair, dancing around sunshine and rainbows... is, well, nonsense. For that matter, most of your DnD creatures are far departed from their fairy counterparts... Dwarves, Trolls, Elves, Gnomes... All had a number of other connotations than just what DnD shows you.
Desdichado
Legend
I was going to suggest The King of Elfland's Daughter too, but it looks like someone beat me to it! 
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
s/LaSH said:
Its a common misnomer that Fairytales are designed for children but this is incorrect. Fairytale are often post-christian renderings of earlier myth, the 'wisdom' of pre-literate societies and were originally designed for education of communities, targeting Adults
Take Red Riding Hood for instance - a metaphor for loss of Virginity where the heroine represents the innocent Maiden (with her red hood intack) who must face the terror of the Crone in the form of Grandmother Wolf. Its Man(Prince) vs Nature(Wolf/Witch), Society vs Savagery, and the innocence of the Maiden vs the terror of the Crone within our lifetimes
Wombat
First Post
Charles de Lint
Let me repeat that
Charles de Lint
This man has more notion of what true fairytales are like than any other author I have ever run across. His prose is as beautiful as anything written by Guy Gavriel Kay and he has his finger on the pulse of the elusiveness of magic.
Even if you are not going to use a modern setting for your game, read Charles de Lint. You will be happy you did.
Let me repeat that
Charles de Lint
This man has more notion of what true fairytales are like than any other author I have ever run across. His prose is as beautiful as anything written by Guy Gavriel Kay and he has his finger on the pulse of the elusiveness of magic.
Even if you are not going to use a modern setting for your game, read Charles de Lint. You will be happy you did.
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