Pimp my Fey, Or Putting a New Spin on Old Courts

[Joe the Rat]

Greetings Playgrounders!

I have a bit of world-building to do, and I could use a fresh perspective.

In my current D&D campaign, I have a player with an Archfey patron. We have a name and a vague description, and a wonderful antagonistic/catspaw relationship. That’s all well and good, but what is the point of having a single Archfey running around (or barred from physical reality- long story) without some sort of larger polity to muck about with? I need to create the Fey Courts. But rather than simply port in a summer/winter seelie/unseelie format, I'd like to do something a little different. I’ve been kicking around some ideas, but I figure if I can come up with a forced, derivative concept, the Playground could do far better.

The main thing I am looking for is an organizing structure - some symbol or principle or theme upon which the groups are organized. I've been kicking around Chess and Elemental themes, for example, but I'd love to see what other strangeness we can come up with.

Spoiler: Some world and game details. It might give you ideas.

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It’s Kind of Funny. The world originated as a “light fantasy with comedic elements” campaign. I have since inherited the setting, and the players, and while I am playing it a bit less ridiculous, having a bit of whimsy and humor to the Fey would be setting-appropriate. Note that funny does not have to mean friendly. Or nice.

This also means that bad jokes and lame puns are fair game.

Dichotomy and Duality. One of the main themes of the setting is opposing forces or principles. Light and Dark, Order and Chaos, Comedy and “Drama,” Harmony and Discipline, Material and Spirit. This is reflected by opposing pairs (The main deities He Who Watches (order) and That Which Waits (entropy)), as well as duality within individuals and organizations (Th’nul the Giver, who hands out blessings with one hand and punishments with the other. There is a schism in the clergy as to which hand is the blessing hand, and which the punishing hand). This would be a good theme to play with (or even subvert).

Keep Out, Except for Party Business. According to the creation stories, there were all sorts of deities and powers and random extra-dimensional beings running around and generally making a mess of things. The main deities of the setting sat down, decided who or what should be allowed to influence things, and metaphysically defenestrated the rest and told them to keep their noses, fingers, and assorted protrusions out. While these Outsiders are still poking about, the Fey are part of the world. The're supposed to be here, and probably have some responsibilities.

Big Titles. Overly-long names, sesquipedalian circumlocutions, over-important titles and oddly specific epithets are a thing. The Society for the Cataloging and Study of Multiple Humanoid Chromaticities exists, and is distinct from the Society for the Study of Multicolored Humanoids and the Heredity of Patterns, but both are allied with the Guild of Tanners and Pigmenters of Non-Ungulate Hides (Their rival guild, the Tanners and Pigmenters of Ungulate Hides, is responsible for green sheep). Bloody Gnomes.

Not your father's elves. We like to change things up. Our elves have those ginormous anime/Warcraft ears, because they use sonar to see in the dark. And some of them fly airships. Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins and Orcs share a common ancestor.

Spoiler: Players keep out!

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Merfolk and Kuo-toa: One species, different sexes.

So doing something different with supernatural creatures (possibly including blending categories) is fair game.

Everybody's got a quest in this sandbox. The Warlock wants to find (and maybe kill... we're not entirely sure) her Patron. The Monk is searching for the person that killed his master. The Rogue is hunting a vampire. The Elf Classic (fighter/magic-user) is looking for artifacts that will keep his homeland from drifting away from reality. The Cleric wants to master life and death, and possibly get his medical license. The DM is building the sites and geography is a pseudorandom sandbox style, which allows him to transplant elements from anywhere (I've had requests for incorporating some classic modules, and I have a sinister plan for the vampire's castle.)

Something Familiar. A lot of the stupidityhumor plays from player knowledge. While I’d like to do something that isn’t cut-and-paste A Midsummer Night's Dream, it would be good to have a touchstone, as you like it, for the players. Something they might recognize, and use their own knowledge to build expectations about the rest of the Faerie Hierarchy. Plus it gives me an excuse for something in-game to work like its real world counterpart, except that it's based on the Fey. So we could have Fey Rummy, as opposed to the usual fantasy games of Dragon Chess, Dragon Poker, Dragon Settlers of Catan, etc.

So, any ideas?

[Spore]

AlanBruce sent me his unseelie fey courtyard so I suggest dropping him a line via PN: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/membe...7239-AlanBruce

[kaoskonfety]

The Fae... hmmm, always rich for the bizarre.

Suggestions:
- Read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - I suggest this book in general for the top notch storytelling and epic magic feel it gets into, but the fae in this book was an interesting character piece, very well done I felt.
- To keep it "light, but serious" I'd angle towards the archfae rivalling gods in power, a 3 year old in attention span (yes this would be both "utterly focused never wants to do anything else AND 10 seconds is FOREVER" and utterly psychopathic in execution of their goals/agendas (I was slighted it the ball by the duke, he did not compliment my shoes. a plague of locusts bearing his face and laughing will devour his crops, the forested lands and all the livestock, perhaps then he will learn manners... oh cakes!).


Roleplay hints:
- Mortals are not worth your attention, so if you give it to them, in any form, they owe you. This includes the duke above, he OWES you for giving him such wonders in his petty life
- The pick someone to like, to mentor, some poor downtrodden soul only you, KING of the farie can help - in this context, the Warlock - Intend to help him and fill his life with woes due to your lack of understanding mortal affairs - if he complains about money? Bless him with poverty so he need never worry about wealth again! oh, that didn't work? well here's the crown jewels and half the royal treasury. The king has wronged him for some unclear reason? Take him to the kings chambers and hand him a knife! Or shatter the oaths of fielty that bind the kings vassals and start a civil war! that should be fun! Hey! lets do BOTH! Now YOU can be king! Its easy, I'll teach you all about waving!


- make the patron a source of power and an object of HATE, but the sort of power you MUST smile to while you hate them.
- dread asking you patron for anything, dread more your patron asking anything of you "I desire a moon as it is pretty, bring me one. Its quite small, should be easy. A new one rises each night, no one will miss it." or "Explain love, it seems a silly notion. Desire I understand, but what is this "caring". Well that doesn't make any sense - show me, fall in love. Now."


I like the chess/game theme idea - a side of white and a side of black... neither is evil - though one side may play at it, for now. Once the "win condition" is hit they change teams - and possibly games and start playing Go, the focus starts on killing the opposing archfae "king" in an elaborate war - once someone manages it (its not permanent of course) everyone switches their good/evil masks and now its about controlling territory in the mortal realm, directly or thought agents, this ends when all the "spaces" are spoken for and now we are playing...

Teams change over the years, players get traded, pieces captured, "courts" was the term we used last game (Tennis - with the pairings between a number of individuals, see-lie appeared to like/ball allied to mortals cause that's where they were serving the "ball" from...), rules bind them more tightly than iron but only today's rules, and the only thing that matters is the game.

The mortal world as a playground, the mightiest of men being playthings to be used and discarded when the inevitably break. The games may take centuries or minutes, but say... chess is wrapping up and the patron is on the back footing, sure to loose soon and is casting about for assistance... some mortals maybe? Won't they just be over JOYED with my attentions.

Pacts are cheating at the game or part of it? or are a penalty?

Reading over it, I have no idea if any of that helps....

Cheers.

[mikeejimbo]

Chess is a game with perfect knowledge (all players know everything about the entire game state) and there are no random elements.

Cards games tend to both have secret and hidden knowledge (each player is the only one who knows their own hand, no one knows what how the deck is currently ordered), and are inherently random.

Maybe you could base the court off a deck of cards.

[Feo]

"The world is a stage.And somebody needs to make sure that the plays don't suck."

Fey see themselves as artists.
Writers, Directors and Stage Designers, which leaves mortals to act in their plays.
While all Fey agree that there should be a play (or plays) there is less unity when it comes to the question if those should be comedy or drama.
In fact the whole political live of the Fey seems to revolve around this issue.
A mortal visitor to their Courts would at first note the masks, either smiling or crying, and come to to the quite logical conclusion that those represent the allegiance of the wearer.
And he would be right, to a point.
While crying masks indeed represent drama and laughing masks represent comedy the thing about masks is that they can be changed.

Politics
If the world is laughing comedy wins,
if the world is crying drama wins.
Whoever worked hardest to achieve victory gets to rule.
But the world is rarely just black or white; add in the fact that seemingly everyone is either a double- or triple-agent or simply playing both sides and that
everyone will happily lie about their actions to steal prestige from their rivals and what you get is utter chaos.
So most of the time their will be at least two leaders and those may be replaced at a moments notice.

Mortals
Mortals are seen as actors.
That may mean that a certain Fey considers you the star of the show and would do everything for you (at least until a new star emerges and you are promptly forgotten).
Even more rarely a Fey may consider you a master of your craft or even as an esteemed colleague worthy of respect as an equal.
But most mortals are considered extras - mildly useful at best and easily and quickly replaced at worst.

Characters

-"Comedy is fun": Will make the world a funnier place one stupid prank at a time. Or may pay a PC to do so.
-"Comedy is hard work": Works hard for comedy, may travel the world to collect jokes or train the next generation of jesters and clowns.
-I shall write drama: May simply help mortals to overcome seemingly impossible odds (or die trying) or may start these threats herself.
-I shall stop this nonsense: May simply write sternly worded letters to various societies to maybe change their names so they fit on a sign or may murder clowns.
-Somebody has to do the real work: May work as an architect, painter or even guardsmen to keep the stage beautiful.

Of course all of these roles could actually be just one Fey wearing different masks... .

[Broken Twin]

An interesting variation would be to have the courts be balanced around emotions. Rift off the Lantern Corps (DC Comics), but instead of having powers fueled by emotion, the Fae do everything in their power to evoke the strongest response of their chosen emotion in mortals. They'll set up decade long plots solely to get one truly epic moment of rage, hope, fear, bliss, or other emotion in particular mortals. They don't care who they hurt or help in the process, only the end result matters.

[Terror_Incognito]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld (primarily Lords and Ladies) might have some ideas for you.

[Acacia OnnaStik]

Maybe you could base the court off a deck of cards.

Oooooh- tarot suits! You can crib a lot of good symbolism off of those. Maybe combine them into sets of two, to go with the dualities theme and give you a head start on the overly long names. "The Everlasting and Most Extravagant Court of Cups and Coins" or something.

[Bob of Mage]

You could make the Fae sort of like the Q from from Star Trek. They would be powerful beyond anything moral and look at us as barely more noteworthy that a dustbunny. When they do look at you as noteworthy life will get weird fast (maybe that mortal wouldn't be some cold if he were able to shoot fire from his eyes, or she looks cute/ulgy/neat, I should take her back home). Remember Fae NEVER play by our rules, but they do tend to play by their own. Also don't forget that keeping the rules the same is for silly mortals.

The Wormhole Aliens from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 would also be good to steal ideas from. Time does not flow in the same way for them, they live in non-linear time. Each time you enter is at a different point on their timeline. When the heros first meet them, the alien have no clue about our world, dispite the fact the nearby planet has worshipped them as gods for hundreds of years and have had contact in a limited fashion.

Spoiler: Major DS9 Plot Point

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Later on you even learn that one of the heros who made first contact was created by the aliens before they meet him. So in other words his own actions lead to his birth. Sort of like a grandfather paradox.

If you could fit in non-linear time it might help the Fae feel a bit alien. Of course it would be hard to run, but any chances to the Fae's "timeline" might not be an issue for them, and indeed happens all the time (might explain some of the werid contast change really being the effect of mortal actions on the Fae).

[mikeejimbo]

Oooooh- tarot suits! You can crib a lot of good symbolism off of those. Maybe combine them into sets of two, to go with the dualities theme and give you a head start on the overly long names. "The Everlasting and Most Extravagant Court of Cups and Coins" or something.

And even the courts shudder at the mention of the Major Arcana. Yes, that would be excellent!

[Excession]

Game based fey sound fun. The Court of Snakes and the Court of Ladders perhaps? Poker, OTOH, just doesn't work for me. Not sure why not.

[Joe the Rat]

Man, you take a few days off...

Thanks for the feedback. I've definitely got some ideas on to work from.

AlanBruce sent me his unseelie fey courtyard so I suggest dropping him a line via PN: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/membe...7239-AlanBruce

Will follow up with him. Thanks.

Chess is a game with perfect knowledge (all players know everything about the entire game state) and there are no random elements.

Cards games tend to both have secret and hidden knowledge (each player is the only one who knows their own hand, no one knows what how the deck is currently ordered), and are inherently random.

Maybe you could base the court off a deck of cards.

Oooooh- tarot suits! You can crib a lot of good symbolism off of those. Maybe combine them into sets of two, to go with the dualities theme and give you a head start on the overly long names. "The Everlasting and Most Extravagant Court of Cups and Coins" or something.

And even the courts shudder at the mention of the Major Arcana. Yes, that would be excellent!

Oh, that's better than playing cards. And I think I know which one to make the Patron. This also gives me an idea for the Deck of Many Things. You thought it was a bad idea before? It doesn't just give you something, it summons one of the Fey Arcane, which gives you something. And now you have an evil opposite to fight, and a nigh cosmic entity watching.

The "common" nobles are the Counted Lords and Ladies, under the Signs Royal. Or something.. The dual courts are not fixed - eternal until the next time they decide to go to war, at which point suit alliances, positions in the heirarchy, and even which suit you are a member of is up for grabs. The Fey Arcane are closer to demigod in nature. The courts may invoke them, but it is unwise to do so foolishly, for their power trumps all. Be careful. You go running to mom after fighting, everybody's gonna get punished. Heh.

Game based fey sound fun. The Court of Snakes and the Court of Ladders perhaps? Poker, OTOH, just doesn't work for me. Not sure why not.

There's a lot of bet and bluff, but to go with the Courts of Two Kings, might I suggest Bridge?

Terry Pratchett's Discworld (primarily Lords and Ladies) might have some ideas for you.

The Fae... hmmm, always rich for the bizarre.

Suggestions:
- Read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - I suggest this book in general for the top notch storytelling and epic magic feel it gets into, but the fae in this book was an interesting character piece, very well done I felt.
- To keep it "light, but serious" I'd angle towards the archfae rivalling gods in power, a 3 year old in attention span (yes this would be both "utterly focused never wants to do anything else AND 10 seconds is FOREVER" and utterly psychopathic in execution of their goals/agendas (I was slighted it the ball by the duke, he did not compliment my shoes. a plague of locusts bearing his face and laughing will devour his crops, the forested lands and all the livestock, perhaps then he will learn manners... oh cakes!).

...

Alien and dangerous, with great airs and no empathy. The day-to-day business of the world is run by a bunch of game-playing loonies, and we're the toys. Just hope you get Andy, and not Sid.

"The world is a stage.And somebody needs to make sure that the plays don't suck."

Fey see themselves as artists.
Writers, Directors and Stage Designers, which leaves mortals to act in their plays.
While all Fey agree that there should be a play (or plays) there is less unity when it comes to the question if those should be comedy or drama.
In fact the whole political live of the Fey seems to revolve around this issue.
A mortal visitor to their Courts would at first note the masks, either smiling or crying, and come to to the quite logical conclusion that those represent the allegiance of the wearer.
And he would be right, to a point.
While crying masks indeed represent drama and laughing masks represent comedy the thing about masks is that they can be changed.

...
Of course all of these roles could actually be just one Fey wearing different masks... .

Oh, you have given me some disturbing ideas. Stories make wonderful metaphors. And they're supposed to go a certain way. I think I need a petty fey noble named Tarquin now.
I have an idea for a rival and sidequest boss. Using the power of stories to cast some poor soul in a heroine role to try and stop the Warlock from doing whatever it is she's doing. Did you know that in D&D 5 scarecrows, lions, and animated suits of armor have the same challenge rating? All we need is a pretty and her little dog too. The villain keeps sending story-themed encounters at them. Why the convoluted themes? "Because I'm making you the hero, and heroes win! And if you don't succeed, we will do it again until we get it right! Now hold still, the next one has hair black as coal, and I want to get it on straight this time. And you need a smaller nose."

You could make the Fae sort of like the Q from from Star Trek. They would be powerful beyond anything moral and look at us as barely more noteworthy that a dustbunny. When they do look at you as noteworthy life will get weird fast (maybe that mortal wouldn't be some cold if he were able to shoot fire from his eyes, or she looks cute/ulgy/neat, I should take her back home). Remember Fae NEVER play by our rules, but they do tend to play by their own. Also don't forget that keeping the rules the same is for silly mortals.

The Wormhole Aliens from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 would also be good to steal ideas from. Time does not flow in the same way for them, they live in non-linear time. Each time you enter is at a different point on their timeline. When the heros first meet them, the alien have no clue about our world, dispite the fact the nearby planet has worshipped them as gods for hundreds of years and have had contact in a limited fashion.

Nonlinear time gives me nosebleeds. Or is it the other way around? But I think Fey just jumped my list of reasons why something doesn't make any sense. Or why the elf exploded into a gnome, then reappeared later in a pool of blood.

An interesting variation would be to have the courts be balanced around emotions. Rift off the Lantern Corps (DC Comics), but instead of having powers fueled by emotion, the Fae do everything in their power to evoke the strongest response of their chosen emotion in mortals. They'll set up decade long plots solely to get one truly epic moment of rage, hope, fear, bliss, or other emotion in particular mortals. They don't care who they hurt or help in the process, only the end result matters.

This would be a good minor theme, and give us some weird-seeming motivatin. Some people just want to watch the world burn. Though it might be more like some people are made out of watching the world burn.


Oh, I've got some ideas to work with here. Probably more than I'll end up using, but I can always take the unused over to my daughter's game. 12 is old enough for reality-warping sociopaths, right?

[kaoskonfety]

Snip.... 12 is old enough for reality-warping sociopaths, right?

12 is the perfect age for reality warping sociopaths. Have you watched childrens cartoons lately? Just be sure to keep it more whimsy wonder and a disregard for reason, and less eating hopes of the living while they are forced to watch. Less, not none.

[nedz]

For my Dwarf game I created an Earth themed Fey Court. Dwarf / Fey hybrids are kind of strange, as is their beer.

[Spore]

For my Dwarf game I created an Earth themed Fey Court. Dwarf / Fey hybrids are kind of strange, as is their beer.

Aren't these basically what (e.g FR) Gnomes are?