Faerie

[Sir Carter]

Greetings All

New to the game though I played many many years ago. I'm looking forward to starting a new game. I'm think of adding some magical Faerie lore into my adventure. When I think of Pendragon in terms of the other world of Faerie I think of movies such as Legend staring Tom Cruise as I feel it needs to be whimsical dream like and strange. I was wondering what Supplements are best to give me better details and states on the various beings and enteritis of this element of the game. Do any of you guys use the Faerie World in any of your games or campaigns? and in what form do the take? How much of a part does Faerie play? Do you use them as a Helpful influence? A trickster influence? or as an evil force? 

I'm just interested in your views on the use of beings such as Elves and Trolls etc 

 

Thanks

Steve

[Morien]

GPC has an Appendix on Faerie and stats for various faerie creatures, as well as Goblin Market adventure. It is not very expansive, though,but GPC is definitely useful for any campaign you'd run anyway.

Book of Magic and Miracles has a couple of adventures focusing on Faeries.

There is no Book of Faeries yet, alas.

 

As for how I GM the Faerie, it really depends. There are Seelie and Unseelie Faeries that people tend to classify as 'good' and 'evil' faeries, but that is not strictly accurate. Seelie Faerie can be nasty as well, especially if doublecrossed or insulted. But perhaps a better description would be that the Seelie faerie tend to start as neutral or even a bit pro-human, while the Unseelie tend to enjoy mischief and causing misery and pain, being more anti-human. I use Faerie when I need to introduce more magic into the campaign, or to bring an adventure someplace where it would not normally occur.

Faerie can twist both time and space, so this can be important as well: in a previous campaign, an important plot point was that the eldest son (PK) was presumed dead since he and his companions (other PKs) vanished enroute from Rome on a ship, and didn't show up again until 3 years later. During which time the inheritance had gone to the second son, forcing them to deal with the issue. Earlier, I also used Faerie to speed-grow a couple of heirs to adulthood by a few years, so that they could continue on the campaign with the same families.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Morien

[TrippyHippy]

The Great Pendragon does detail some good faerie lore and scenarios. Tales of Magic & Miracles also had some good faerie tales too. 

Following on, and it's not a Pendragon supplement per se, but there is some excellent material in Ars Magica RPG supplements for various editions, generally entitled "Faerie" or "Faeries" or "Realms of Power: Faerie" respectively. All are very well researched, atmospheric and useful for Pendragon games. Note that the Ars Magica historical period is nominally late 12th century, although Pendragon's Authurian setting is anachronistic anyway, so it won't matter much.

I also prefer the faerie realms to be quite dark and weird in my games, akin to the "Chaos realms" of other game settings. As such, there could be some inspiration here too. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by TrippyHippy

[Cornelius]

On 7/7/2019 at 5:02 AM, Sir Carter said:

Greetings All

New to the game though I played many many years ago. I'm looking forward to starting a new game. I'm think of adding some magical Faerie lore into my adventure. When I think of Pendragon in terms of the other world of Faerie I think of movies such as Legend staring Tom Cruise as I feel it needs to be whimsical dream like and strange. I was wondering what Supplements are best to give me better details and states on the various beings and enteritis of this element of the game. Do any of you guys use the Faerie World in any of your games or campaigns? and in what form do the take? How much of a part does Faerie play? Do you use them as a Helpful influence? A trickster influence? or as an evil force? 

I'm just interested in your views on the use of beings such as Elves and Trolls etc 

 

Thanks

Steve

For me Faeries work different from the sense that they have no morality that defines good or evil as we humans do. So there are fae that destroy things. They can be seen as evil, but not to the other fae. They just are there. I had King Oberon explain it to the PKs as such: Although I would like to help destroying the Dark Hart (the nemesis of the PKs and an evil fae). This is not my power. You see I am the right hand and the Dark hart is the left hand. While his power is destruction, mine is creation. In other words I cannot destroy.

For me the Seelie court are the fae that stand for summer, growth and life, while the Unseelie court are of winter, death and destruction. But the distinction is mostly a human one. For the fae such distinctions are strange. So a nice and benevolent fae may suddenly turn into a raving monsters killing everything in his path. An example is a redcap that the players had to deal with. It helped them out several times, but also left a trail of bodies to lead one of the PKs into trouble with Arawn, the King of Winter.

In the end dealing with the Fae is dangerous and weird. For they place value on odd things. 

[Atgxtg]

I view Faeries as having some sort of morality, only that is isn't quite the same as what we have. I also consider them to be more concerned with following the proper form and letter of things as opposed to the spirit of or meaning behind something. In some ways it's like children trying to play house. They know that they are supposed to send the children to bed early and punish them for improper behavior, but they don't necessarily know why, or even bother to try and figure out why. 

So a faerie knight might oppose the PKs or set up some sort of horrible challenge for  them not because he has anything against them or wishes to see them killed (or maimed, eaten, cursed, etc.) but because that's his part in the story and he is doing what he is supposed to do. If the PKs don't defeat the giant and save the maiden, well then they were the ones who dropped the ball, weren't they? The giant and maiden did their bit.