Help with DnD children's songs and fables?

[Aramel]

In a campaign I'm running I have a mad divine being ruining around causing chaos. One of the methods I've chosen is to have it making simple children's songs and fables come true. I'm hoping to have one out of every 10 or so adventures/encounters involve this. My problem though is that I'm terrible at making up children's songs in general let alone DnD themed ones. Do you all have any stored away that I could use?

[Telok]

Struwwelpeter
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter

[King of Nowhere]

One of the methods I've chosen is to have it making simple children's songs and fables come true.

is that really all that different from a standard d&d setting? :smallbiggrin::smallwink:

[Berenger]

Would this work?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qs2wYg-9pA

[Eldan]

We occasionally had storywriting threads in the homebrew forum. Maybe pillage from some of these? Here's the one I could find since I started them, but there's more:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?509453-Grandfather-why-The-Mythology-Building-Game&highlight=grandfather http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?368603-Let-s-build-a-mythology&highlight=grandfather

[Kraynic]

May not be as fast as you would like, but you could read "Witches Abroad" by Terry Pratchett and see if it stirs some creativity.

[Segev]

If you want this to be a recognizable trend without having to give players the reference song/rhyme/tale just before or just after, you're best off using real-world children's stories and fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Pick ones that you like for your plot, then consider your setting and how they would change - if they would change.

"Little Red Riding Hood" could exist in any faux-medieval fantasy setting; the roots for it are all there. Variations would make the wolf a werewolf, but even that's not necessary as the "wolf" could be allegorical FOR a werewolf as much as anything else.

Cinderella could be historical or historical fiction, given the existence of actual fairies.

Various interpretations of Ring Around the Rosie apply in any setting where disease can kill and plague can be scary. Or where people need to hide political statements mocking the two sides of the civil war ravaging the country without having either decide to make an example of the cheeky peasants teaching their kids to whine about their betters' political ambitions.

Baba Yaga IS literally real in at least one D&D setting.

Little Miss Muffet could be translated as-is into any setting; in D&D, there could be some drow allegories in there.

Pop Goes the Weasel can be an innocent game-song, a warning about dangerous rodentia, or a creepy warning about some horrible monster that jump-scares and steals away "monkeys" (who are allegories for the children). Accompanying game might be a hide-and-seek meets musical chairs thing.

Replace "Santa Clause" in Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and remove the context about WHY being good is important, and it can be a terrifying warning song more about a creature resembling the Krampus. Or just about the Sheriff's Secret Police.

Three Blind Mice also can translate directly, especially if there's a giant ("the farmer" or "the butcher," depending on how much you want to change the song) who likes to capture orphan kids and pluck out their eyes before storing them in his larder for fresh meat, and the song is about three of them escaping his wife.

Hickory Dickory Dock could be a how-to mnemonic for surviving a run up a haunted tower, including ritual behaviors for each of 12 conditions found when you get to the top.

The Ants Go Marching could be a "warning signs" song about the Formians going to war.

[Berenger]

Little Miss Muffet could be translated as-is into any setting; in D&D, there could be some drow allegories in there.

Drow need some version of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

[Bohandas]

is that really all that different from a standard d&d setting? :smallbiggrin::smallwink:

Presumably its like the Discworld novel Witches Abroad where although the whole setting is fantasy, the country that has been magically bound to play out classic fairytales over and over again seems wrong even to people in-world

[jayem]

Rapunzel has traceable variants. And you always have the fur slipper to give a bit of a delay for a Cinderella.

As mentioned though, if you want the players to recognise them as being fairy tales, they will have to recognise the tale slightly (unless you spend time educating them about D&D fairly tales, but then that has problems)

[Eldan]

Rapunzel has traceable variants. And you always have the fur slipper to give a bit of a delay for a Cinderella.

As mentioned though, if you want the players to recognise them as being fairy tales, they will have to recognise the tale slightly (unless you spend time educating them about D&D fairly tales, but then that has problems)

Introducing the fur slipper at my table would only be a guarantee of hours of dirty jokes in my group.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Sam in Lord of the Rings has a song about an oliphaunt. When evil men riding the things actually arrive it feels a bit like this to him.

Also a giant war elephant might be kind of a cool encounter.

[HalflingHannah]

To write a children's song, you need to start with a warning. Nearly all children's songs are warnings put into seemingly innocent rhyme. Ring around the Rosey is about plague symptoms, for example. So what do you want to warn your players about? Is there a tell-tale sign that occurs before the arrival of whatever evil you are planning? Think about world events, plagues, dying forests, earthquakes, the return of dragons, etc. Start there, then make it vague.

You don't want to scare children too badly, so you take your warning and you make it vague. The return of dragons could be phrased as "when the worm takes flight and the sky burns bright." These images are not as terrifying and, thus, work well in children's songs.

Finally, make it short and catchy. Most childrens songs are only a line or two about something very specific, so you will want to have several that your players will collect throughout their adventures. You will also need to make it seem important to do so, or the players will likely skip over it completely and forget the words.

So here's how it breaks down:

1. Figure out your warning signs
2. Make them vague through figurative language
3. Keep it short and humorous if possible

Example:

When the worm takes flight
and the sky burns bright
beware the wandering snare
of the snow white mare

For this song I would have the return of dragons be the major warning sign and have the villian arrive on a snow white mare to offer assisstance. If the players have paid attention, then they would know this offer is a "snare" or a trap.

Hope that helps! I have some other stuff about lore building on my website halflinghobbies.com if you need more tips!