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Armoury99
2007-11-23, 06:55 AM
I've recently had a request to run "something with the 'fairy story for adults' feel of Stardust (the book, not the film) and Neil Gaiman's Faerie setting in general, including the idea of two intersecting worlds ('real' and 'Faerie') with different rules.

I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for system, both to emulate the feel and to recreate the setting specifically?

Wraith
2007-11-23, 07:22 AM
The first thought I had would be World of Darkness: Dark Ages for medieval setting and rules, and then include Mage and/or Changeling for the 'weirdness' factor.

This would probably work best if the PC's were Mortals though, and such a plan usually limits skills and abilities to mundane levels - and who'd want to play WoD without magic spells or abilities to go with it?

Talic
2007-11-23, 07:25 AM
I've recently had a request to run "something with the 'fairy story for adults' feel of Stardust (the book, not the film) and Neil Gaiman's Faerie setting in general, including the idea of two intersecting worlds ('real' and 'Faerie') with different rules.

I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for system, both to emulate the feel and to recreate the setting specifically?

Not sure about the book or the film, but it's easy enough to do two seperate worlds. I would imagine you could run something similar to the description in Terry Brook's "Magic Kingdom For Sale" series, wherein you have a world designed as a no magic world, completely fleshed out, with certain areas, much like the D&D portal, wherein crossing is possible. On the other side, design your high magic world.

Make the portal area only crossable by certain beings, and you have a way to keep tech out of the faerie world, whilst keeping faeries out of the real world setting.

There's a workable mechanic. Other books where you'll find a dual-world concept includes Piers Anthony's "Apprentice Adept" Series, which combines a Sci-Fi high tech world with a High magic medieval fantasy world. Use them as you will to help flesh out ideas.

The down side of this is that you'll be operating under two sets of rules, so you'll have to keep your books straight. It's more work than a usual campaign world.

greenknight
2007-11-23, 08:53 AM
You could also try Ars Magica. That has Regio, which is really just the place where different worlds interconnect. The rules are basically the same in each Regio, but different kinds of magic become more powerful or weaker in each one.

ZekeArgo
2007-11-23, 12:01 PM
Honestly, the last... 1/4 of the book really disapointed me. The movie a little less so after I'd already read the book, just didn't like the over-the-top characterizations that some of the cast were given.

If your characters are fans of Gaiman though, they should check out the Abhorsen series by Nix. Interesting magic, "dual worlds" and well, its really well written.

As for a game... how "in a fairy story" do you want your characters to be? I could see using the Exalted rules, modified for a totally new setting, as being interesting for this kind of thing.

Dant
2007-11-23, 05:10 PM
Honestly, does sound like the new version of Changling would work pretty well for what you're looking for.

Jannex
2007-11-23, 05:12 PM
I don't know much about the nWoD Changeling, but the oWoD Changeling: The Dreaming (and, to a lesser extent, Mage: The Ascension) deals pretty much exactly with that sort of concept.

Egill
2007-11-23, 07:36 PM
There are three systems I would recommend.

Seven Leagues is built and flavored with a fairy-tale setting in mind. The mechanics are somewhat simple, but they are driven mechanically by player narrative and the written story of a character. The site is here, and they have an incomplete version of the .pdf available for perusal Seven Leagues (http://www.malcontentgames.com/7L/index.html). There is enough material in the pdf to run a session or two to see if you like it.

The FATE system, based off of FUDGE, is really quite wonderful. Since character-created aspects fuel a huge portion of the mechanics, it would lend itself nicely to the sort of off-beat logic of fairy tales. This system allows for almost complete creative control of characters, and it rewards the creativity of players with more useful pcs. Since it is generic, you would have to home-brew a magic system, but there are a lot of good starting points provided in the pdf. There are also many homebrew sites that have settings/ideas available. FATE system (http://www.faterpg.com/) Available for free.

The third system is risus, which is very simple, and lends itself to the sort of flexibility and off-the-cuff playing that might be nice in a fairy-tale setting. I like this system quite a bit, but many people find the advancement options unamenable to the traditional notion of kill monsters, get xp, level up. The mechanics are based on character cliches, which works pretty well for creating the unusual sort of powers/behaviors often seen in fairy tales. Here it is risus system (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm). Available for free.

Armoury99
2007-11-24, 07:14 AM
Thanks all, will definitely check out the various systems.

graymachine
2007-11-24, 07:32 AM
Apology for being the late poster, but I would suggest the first edition (second edition is garbage!) of Exalted: Fae. The setting brings together nicely all the madness of the changlings but also brings in that not-quite-evil-but-simply-alien feel to things. I suggest Exalted over newer books, Changling:the Lost for example, because Exalted has the epic feel I think you are looking for while the "story" of the new Changling series is mostly about things putting lotion on their respective skins, or hoses and some such nonsense.

tainsouvra
2007-11-25, 02:33 PM
the "story" of the new Changling series is mostly about things putting lotion on their respective skins, or hoses and some such nonsense. This is quite true, the new Changeling has been accurately described as an "abused survivor" story just as much as a story about the land of the fey--which is in keeping with many traditions about the faerie, but probably not what most players are looking for. Exalted, on the other hand, does have a tragic element as well, so while it might be closer to what the OP had in mind, it would also require changes.

I would, overall, recommend taking the rules out of Changeling and simply refluffing the whole thing to fit the books the OP liked. The Changeling rules are pretty nice for what they do, and much of the WoD rules (with the possible exception of Morality/Clarity) can be used outside of the WoD setting with no issues.