#fae games

Finally back into animatics again!

This week’s recommendations revolve around faeries, either as benign outsiders that are misunderstood, or as malevolent or strange entities that can be horrific threats.

Strays, by kumada1.

Strays is a 246 page tabletop rpg about changelings---the children of two fae courts---caught in between the pull of the mortal and fae worlds.

Choose between eight Courts, take special powers, befriend buildings, wander between worlds, and try to get by in a setting where everyone wants you to grow up and pick a side.

There are rules for physical, social, and magical combat. Detailed writeups of the eight Realms of faerie. An overhaul of the regular PbtA rules. GMing advice. A sample scenario. Rules for burning yourself out and becoming an NPC. A shared hangout spot for the party. And more.

This game combines the magic of faerie with the paranoia of a setting where everyone is keeping secrets - even your parents. Your characters have only recently discovered their fae origins, and now that they have magic, all of the Fae Courts - and a mundane Taskforce - want them. This game is PbtA so much of the fiction will follow from what the characters are interested in - what’s on the line if they start pursuing their magic? Will their mortal families pay a price for being unsuspecting hosts? Play to find out.

The Gloaming Diaries, by Timor Jack Press.

The Gloaming Diaries is a tabletop roleplaying game of modern fairy tales in small towns. As a player, you take on the role of the gloamspun, half-human, half-fae beings created when a fairy fleeing eternal war encounters a human seeking change within the Wood. Needing one another, they weave their souls together, becoming one.  Among your fellow gloamspun what unfolds next is a new story. For you have two pasts, but only one future.

Play as one of 10 Paths, each of which describes the human you were and the path that led you to that fateful twilight meeting, and one of 10 Tales, each of which describes the fae you were and the story your magical life told. Were you an Elder entering the woods to die who instead found a new life with a Tale of Mischief? Were you a Lover who slipped into the woods for a tryst and found yourself drawn to join souls with a Tale of Sorrow?

What stories will you tell in your small town at the edge of the woods? For although everyone's a little strange in remote parts, few are as strange as you.

The Gloaming Diaries uses either a d20 or a pack of tarot cards to move the story forward. This game has a Third Party License that outlines the rules for creating your own content for The Gloaming Diaries, and the creator has a number of their own supplements for the game, encompassing everything from violence, death, and dreams.

Changelings: The Magic & The Fury, by Kolek Niewiary.

This is a roleplaying game about changelings i.e. fae creatures (the elves, the faerie, the fair folk) inhabiting human bodies. While in the mortal realm they must control their conflicting nature while fighting for the cause that called them onto Earth.

The players take the role of the changelings. The fair folk, the fae left this world as the civilization developed and banality ruled. Now, recalled by human dreams of a better world, they return as changelings. Infuriated with the world that once rejected them, with the people who killed the magic and replaced it with Excel spreadsheets. The Faerie, wearing a human body, finds a cause to fight for. They come to help the weak and the excluded.

Veterans of Honey Heist or Lasers & Feelings may resonate a little bit with the rules of Changelings, but it draws most of its mechanical inspiration from Wights, by Steffie de Vaan. Your characters, as changelings called forth by mortals to meet injustices with righteous anger, will teeter between the banality of the human world and the Dreams of Faerie. These two stats are called Approaches, and they can increase and decrease depending on character actions. If you’re enthusiastic about justice and faerie magics, this might be the game for you!

Adiotopia, by Minakie.

Adiotopia is a micro TTRPG (for 3+ players) about collaboratively telling the stories of a group of young Protectors in training, who travel between their world (Sanubari) and Fäerie with their mentor in order to help both Saubi and Fae deal with their everyday problems, enforcing the law, mitigating conflicts, protecting people, studying the indigenous fauna and flora and potentially solving mysteries, while always being on the lookout for the dangerous darklings and the unpredictable undead. If you're lucky, you might befriend the dragons or the elves, or even learn a magic trick or two along the way.

The premise of the game is that the world is full of creatures and mysteries worth investigating and that, while some of them might have a simple and rather ordinary explanation, others might not be what they seem at first, and be somehow connected with the multitude of mystical creatures that inhabit the land. 

 Adiotopia is a great pick-up game that borrows some ideas of magical settings for teenagers and combines it the the allure of Faerie. Faerie is a dangerous and evocative place, with endless possibilities in regards to what the party will find there. Sanubari is home, and comfortable, a place you can retreat to when Faerie becomes too weird or wild. If you like coming-of-age fiction about young people stepping into a magical world and having adventures, this is a great option worth checking out.

Faewater, by A Smouldering Lighthouse.

In the darkest woods, you may find the fae. Old and strange, their power and pleasure can be intoxicating.In the darkest waters, you may find the same.

A group of mortals have gathered to seek the deep fae. Tonight is your final act after months of secret meetings. You must not fail now.

Faewater is a one-page dark fantasy game about underwater fairies and the mortals they prey on. This tabletop role-playing game is designed to be played in a single two to three hour session. 

This is a one-page game that explores the horrific side of Faerie - the power and terror of dealing with the unknown. You are mortals diving underwater to find a mystery that proves to be more deadly than you expected, and throughout the game, your character will find themselves replaced by fae creatures. Don’t hold on too carefully to your PC - you’re going to lose them at some point, either to home or to the deep. 

Hedge, by A Couple of Drakes.

The Fey were here before we were. They have not forgotten. 

Their forms are multitude. Their powers are incalculable. Their mastery of the world, the Wyld, that they fashioned for themselves when nature rebelled against them, is absolute. They press against the edges of our world, watching. Waiting. They pick at the seams and wait for the barrier between us and them to unravel. They are coming. All that stands between them and us is the Hedge. The barrier of Nature's magic which keeps them at bay is weakening. In her agony, the Hedge calls forth her champions.

"My savior, my darling, my cure. Stop at nothing."

Once, you were merely human. Once, the Fey would have looked at you only as a thing to be bent or broken. Or eaten. Now the Hedge has chosen you to stand, to fight, and to shine. Harness the powers of nature, upgradeable weapons, and stolen Fey magic, to fight against hordes of scary faeries.

Hold tight to your humanity as you take the fight into the depths of the Wyld, facing down the Court of Air and Darkness in the heart of their power with six iconic Wardens, 102 awe-inspiring powers, 65 beefy pages of rules and vague-but-evocative lore, and the robust, power-fantasy fueling core mechanics of LUMEN. Hold the line against terrifying foes, collect powerful Fey Grafts, and save what's left of the world from a dark fairytale apocalypse.

Scene from a book series i just finished- i thought it woild be fun to draw little illustrations for the stuff i read

Fanart Wednesday😉

Title: Queen [Fae Games 3] Author: Karen Lynch Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult Rating: 4 Stars Description/Synopsis: Jesse recovered the missing ke’tain to keep her parents safe, but it came at a high price. In the weeks after her brush with death, she struggles to adapt to her new life, while burdened with the terrible secret she learned about her brother Caleb. On her first visit to…

Title: Knight [Fae Games 2] Author: Karen Lynch Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult Rating: 5 Stars Description/Synopsis: Jesse’s adventures in bounty hunting continue. Will she discover why her parents were taken? Will she ever forgive Lukas and his men? New dangers and intrigues await her because the Fae games are far from over. WARNING – SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT – REVIEW…

Title: Pawn [Fae Games 1] Author: Karen Lynch Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult Rating: 5 Stars Description/Synopsis: Jesse James is a normal eighteen-year-old, even if her parents are the best faerie bounty hunters in New York. Jesse’s only concern is how to pay for college, but that changes the night her parents disappear. Equipped with her parents’ weapons and her own smarts, Jesse…