Faerie's Tale

[teh bunneh]

My wife picked up a copy of Faery's Tale at Gencon last year, and decided she wanted to run a game. She and I wrote up a few characters (a surprisingly easy task -- each one took maybe 15 minutes, and that was mostly deciding which Gifts to take).

 

There are four types of Faeries: Sprites (the warriors and peacekeepers of the Faerie realms), Pookas (shapeshifters and tricksters), Brownies (who live among the humans and keep their houses clean, in exchange for bread and milk), and Pixies (winged faeries with magical Pixie Dust). Each faerie has special powers based on their type, and they also have "Gifts" which give them additional magical powers.

 

Last night, she ran the first session with our regular Sunday group. Our cast of characters included:

• Bri, an excitable Sprite whose love for justice knows no limit.
  
• Flynn, a wise old Sprite who has seen everything there is to see.
  
• Jaxx the Fierce, a brave but foolhardy Pooka.
  
• Twylla, a Pooka whose visions of the future are seldom wrong.
  
• Wilkin, a courteous and conscientious Brownie.
  
• Willow, a dizzy and flighty Pixie who sometimes forgets where she is and what she's doing.

Recap to follow...

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Once upon a time…

 

It was a sunny morning in Brightwood, and the entire village was abuzz with excitement. The prince was hosting a big 3-day festival starting that night, and all the humans were getting ready to attend.

 

Things were a bit more sedate in the faerie-haunted glens of the deep woods, though. A group of Faerie friends were going to meet up in a clearing. They had been invited there by their friend Twylla, who promised them that something big and exciting was about to happen.

 

Wilkin the Brownie hurriedly finished his chores at the old woodcutter's house and sped off down the road to meet with his friends, hoping he wouldn't be late. But at the edge of town, near the big merchant's house, he heard shouting. Ever curious, he stopped to listen. It seemed a very mean old woman was berating a young girl, telling her that she was only allowed to go to tonight's party if she managed to pick all the lentils out of the fireplace before two hours had passed.

 

This sounded like a terrible injustice to Wilkin (not to mention, terribly untidy!), so he rushed to the woods to tell his friends.

 

Meanwhile, Jaxx woke up late and, realizing the time, ran towards the clearing. But on his way there, he was distracted by something he had never seen before – a huge stone tower in the middle of the woods! Curious, he wandered closer. A long golden rope dropped out of the top of the tower, and an ugly old hag climbed down it. Jaxx saw that the "rope" was actually a very long lock of hair, attached to the head of a beautiful princess. Sneaking closer, he overheard the witch say, "I'll be back for you later, my pretty. I've got plans for you!"

 

Jaxx wasn't about to let this mean old witch harm the young princess, so he made a note of where the tower was and hurried off to find his friends.

 

In yet another part of the woods, Twylla was walking towards her appointment when she heard weeping… and ribbiting! She followed the sound over to the pond, where she saw a large bullfrog sitting on a lilypad, crying its eyes out. Having never seen a crying frog before, she asked it what was wrong. "I'm cursed!" the frog wailed. "I'm really a prince, but a wicked hag transmogrified me when she found I was wooing her beautiful daughter!" Twylla was unconvinced by this unlikely tale (she'd heard similar stories from Jaxx, and everyone knew how Jaxx was inclined to embellish the truth!), but she promised she'd look into his problem for him.

 

And in still another part of the woods, Bri and Flynn were heading up the road when they saw a young boy with a cow. The cow had sat down in the middle of the road and was refusing to go any further. "Come on, cow!" the frustrated boy shouted. "I have to get you to market, or mother will beat me!"

 

Bri and Flynn didn't want the boy to suffer a beating, so Flynn snuck up behind the cow and poked it in the rump with his sword. The startled cow leapt to his feet and the boy was able to lead him away. But just down the road, the boy ran into an old man. "How much do you want for the cow?" the old man asked.

 

"My mom said to get five copper pieces, and not a penny less!" the boy said.

 

"Well, I haven't got any copper, but I'll give you these five magic beans. They're worth a lot more than mere coins!"

 

The boy, obviously a lad of Jaxxian intellect, decided that this was a fair trade and happily took the beans. Bri and Flynn watched from under cover, dismayed at the boy's foolishness but unable to intervene.

 

Finally, all the Faeries friends met at their clearing and they told the others their sad tales of woe. Flynn immediately took charge, announcing that since the girl in the village was on a time limit, the Faeries should help her first. He recommended that the friends recruit a flock of birds to rush in and pick all the lentils from the fireplace. Jaxx knew where a flock of starlings was having their breakfast, so he transformed himself into a crow and carried Bri there.

 

Bri managed to convince the starlings to help (promising that they could eat some of the lentils), and the whole flock flew to the girl's house.

The tiny heroes found the girl amidst the ashes, crying bitter tears at her misfortune. Wilkin ran to the front door and rapped loudly. The girl got up to see who was at the door and as soon as she was gone, the flock of birds flew in through the window and picked up all the lentils (eating only a few of them). When the girl came back, she was amazed that her chore was already finished!

 

Satisfied at a job well-done, the Faeries then headed for the bullfrog pond, where they found the prince-cum-frog still weeping at the edge of the water. "We've come to help!" Twylla told him, which cheered him up immensely.

 

"The only way to break my curse is by the kiss of a beautiful princess," the frog (whose name was Ambrose) told them. The Faeries then began bickering about how to find a princess ("What if we find an ugly princess? Can we get the frog drunk so he thinks she's beautiful?"), but finally Jaxx announced that he knew where to find a princess. "There's one trapped in the tower I found," he told everyone.

 

"That's the girl I'm meant to wed!" Ambrose told them. Thus, the Faeries and the frog headed back to the tower. Twylla and Willow scouted around, but saw no sign of the witch, so Willow used her faerie dust to allow the others to fly to the top of the tower. Inside, despite a thorough search, they saw no sign of the girl. "That mean ol' hag must've taken her away!" Jaxx said. "Ooh, when I get hold of her I'm gonna punch her right in the nose!"

 

The other Faeries calmed Jaxx down and decided that, since they had no way to track the witch they had to focus on other problems. Since Bri and Flynn didn't trust the old man on the road (magic beans always spell trouble!), the friends would go to the boy's farmhouse and check in on him.

 

They got there in a flash. The farmhouse was a mess – thornbushes growing everywhere, the roof sagging, the windows dirty. Wilkin, seeing the filth, just about had a conniption fit and had to restrain himself from going on a cleaning frenzy. Instead, he snuck inside and listened in on what was going on. There was a woman standing outside of a closed door, yelling at someone on the other side. But when Wilkin poked his head under the door to see who was there, he saw no one!

 

Twylla went into a trance to determine what had happened here. Jaxx climbed to the top of the roof to question the birds that nested there. Flynn went to speak with the scrawny chickens that pecked around the barnyard, and Bri went into the woods to see if any animals had seen anything.

 

Twylla saw that, a few hours ago, the boy snuck out of his window and ran off down the road. Jaxx, being unable to speak with animals, learned nothing useful (but don't tell him that!). Flynn learned the sad history of this farmhouse, how the mother was a widow and how the farm had slowly fallen apart after her husband passed away. Bri learned that the boy headed into the woods a few hours ago, but couldn't ascertain the direction he went in. She also made friends with a bird named Jenni. Wilkin busied himself by cleaning up the boy's room as best as he could.

 

Twylla told her friends that the old woman threw the magic beans under a thornbush. The bush looked dark and menacing, with thick brambles and sharp thorns, but Jaxx was not afraid of it. "Give us back those beans!" he demanded of the bush. The bush shook its branches fiercely at the Pooka. "No bush talks to me like that!" Jaxx shouted. He charged into the bush, tearing off its leaves and breaking its stems. The thornbush was no match for his great strength, and soon he found himself in the center of it, face-to-face with an evil Phookha (sort of like a Pooka, but, you know, evil)!

 

"Gimme those beans!" Jaxx demanded.

 

"No beans!" the Phookha snarled, and the two of them began wrestling. Finally, Jaxx got his evil counterpart in a headlock, and the Phookha vanished in a puff of smoke. Jaxx looked around, but was unable to find the beans. "Huh," he said. "I guess when he said "No beans" he meant he didn't have them, not that I couldn't take them. Well, ya live and ya learn."

 

Bri suggested that Willow use her Pixie Dust to track the boy, and she did so, causing his footprints to sparkle in the sunlight. The heroes followed them into the woods, where they found a clearing and a giant tree. They spotted an owl nesting in the tree and Flynn went up to question it.

 

"Did you see a boy pass by here?" Flynn asked.

 

"No," the owl answered. "But I did see a girl. Beneath me is the grave of her mother. She comes here every day and waters the ground with her tears. She's cried so much that this tree grew up here. She came today to tell her mother's grave that she couldn't go to the ball unless she had a fancy gown, and was surprised to find a beautiful dress hanging from a tree branch. But before she could put it on, a wicked hag showed up and carried her off. I think she took the girl to a tower deep in the woods. Now, let me go back to sleep."

 

A tower deep in the woods! From the owl's description, the Faeries knew this must be the lentil-girl from the village. And whatever the hag was up to, they knew they didn't have much time to help the young humans…

 

TBC!

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

This is my character, Jaxx the Fierce!

 

Jaxx the Fierce

Once upon a time, the Faerie Queen was out exploring her realm when she became ensnared in a giant spider web! The gargantuan spider came creeping towards her, black and hairy, intent on making her into its dinner. Then suddenly there was a shout, and out of nowhere a young Pooka named Jaxx came charging out of the woods. Jaxx leapt up and landed on the spider's back, thrashing it on the head with a stick. The spider ran around in circles, trying like mad to get the crazy Pooka off its back, but finally, dazed, senseless, and defeated, it ran off and has never been seen in this part of the woods since.

 

The Faerie Queen was so impressed by Jaxx's bravery that she dubbed him Jaxx the Fierce (a name which he wears proudly to this day!). She told him that if he ever needed a favor, he need only call on her and it would be granted. Soon word of the amazing rescue spread across the woods, and Jaxx became famous among the Faerie people for his courage.

 

Jaxx and Wilkin are good friends. Jaxx leads a very carefree life, and because of that he sometimes doesn't have enough to eat. But Wilkin is kind enough to sometimes share his milk and breadcrumbs with the Pooka. Jaxx is careful not to take advantage of his friend, though! He makes sure he pays for his supper by rooting out and killing spiders and cockroaches, and chasing off the mice that sometimes infest Wilkin's house (a job that Wilkin has no taste for).

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

This is great stuff! I'll be directing Pat over here to read this. Thanks for the writeup of the game. I'll definitely be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Thanks! We had fun. I think we'll be playing again in two weeks. Our heroes still have to rescue Jack, Cinderella, and Rapunzel from that nasty hag!

 

Who's Pat? Friend of yours?

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Yes, he is a friend of mine, and his name is on the front of the book. Oh, and my name is in the list of play testers.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

That's pretty cool. My lovely bunny-wife wants to run it at the kids-con part of the local convention next February.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Did you hear about Fairy's Tale Deluxe? It was just debuted at GenCon and did very well. If she does run it, please have her post the results. We are always looking for folks who are playing it and how they are using it and which options they are using and such.

[GothKidSamurai]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Glad to hear it plays well. I've been meaning to get it after hearing Paul Tevis' review. And now with the Deluxe edition, I might have to pick it up.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

I posted a few quotes from the game.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Did you hear about Fairy's Tale Deluxe? It was just debuted at GenCon and did very well. If she does run it' date=' please have her post the results. We are always looking for folks who are playing it and how they are using it and which options they are using and such.[/quote']

 

She picked up the PDF of FT Deluxe last weekend. I have no idea what optional rules she's using, though. I'll see if I can get her to post on this thread.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Thanks, that would be great! Any and all feedback is welcome. When you guys played did you use dark essence and how much essence movement was there? Was there a lot of "environment manipulation", or did folks hoard their essence?

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

When you guys played did you use dark essence and how much essence movement was there?

 

Dark essence? First I've heard of it, so I'll assume no.

 

Was there a lot of "environment manipulation", or did folks hoard their essence?

 

We were huge hoarders. My character turned into a bird once, and used 1 essence in his fight with the phoukha, and lost one or two in the fight. I don't think anyone used more than I did.

 

I think next game the GM is going to encourage us to spend more freely.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

You get Dark Essence when you do things that are considered "not good". The idea is that over the course of several adventures you could actually turn into a dark fairy.

 

Interesting about the hoarding. That is actually one of the really strong aspects of the game being able to affect what is going on. When we playtested it, my son was constantly manipulating the environment. Tree limbs would fall at just the right time to save the sprite who had fallen into the river, or suddenly a bunch of hornets would appear to slow down the heroes as the chased after the goblins. The essence was flowing in and out of his hand like crazy.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Interesting about the hoarding. That is actually one of the really strong aspects of the game being able to affect what is going on. When we playtested it' date=' my son was constantly manipulating the environment. Tree limbs would fall at just the right time to save the sprite who had fallen into the river, or suddenly a bunch of hornets would appear to slow down the heroes as the chased after the goblins. The essence was flowing in and out of his hand like crazy.[/quote']

 

Yeah. I think it's due to the fact that, as a group, we're not really used to mechanics that allow you to affect the game world. We used Essence to activate our own powers, but not much else.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

That's what I figured it was. It is really cool once you realize the power that you have regarding essence and affecting the game world, but the GM has to be careful to rein things in if the players go nuts with it. It definitely puts a really fun and exciting spin on gaming when the players have that ability, but the need to still keep some essence for powers does a decent job of keeping things from getting too carried away.

 

EDIT: Oh, and Pat read the thread and said that he wished he was in this game. I agree, it does sound like a lot of fun.

[Firefly Games]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Rob tipped me off to this thread - thanks, Rob. Excellent play report, what an awesome adventure! I love mixing up fairy tales. Look forward to hearing about the next game.

[Zindil]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

I just recently picked up the pdf of Faery's Tale Deluxe from IPR. I really like what I see so far. I have a two 1/2 year old daughter, so I have been bombarded by my fair share of fairy tales recently. After I read the description of the game and discovered that it is meant to be played by kids as young as six, I had to pick it up.

 

Great job on it Firefly! I hope you do more stuff like this in the future, and I can't wait for my daughter to play it when she is older. By the way, the art is incredible in there.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Check out the latest from Firefly Games' blog:

 

Here's something extra-cool - Arion Games has produced a licensed set of printable color figures for Faery's Tale Deluxe. They're just $5 on RPG Now, Your Games Now, e23, and Fantasy Downloads - look under Arion Games. Check them out!

[Zindil]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Check out the latest from Firefly Games' blog:

 

Here's something extra-cool - Arion Games has produced a licensed set of printable color figures for Faery's Tale Deluxe. They're just $5 on RPG Now, Your Games Now, e23, and Fantasy Downloads - look under Arion Games. Check them out!

 

Nice! Thanks for the heads-up on that RP.

[gamerz123]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

That's pretty cool. My lovely bunny-wife wants to run it at the kids-con part of the local convention next February.

 

I was part of the Firefly Games booth crew this year at GenCon

 

Any Advice for Running FT at Conventions & Similar Venue

 

A lot of people were talking about running games at conventions (particularly in YP rooms) and after-school programs. Thought I'd start a thread on that board for folk to share GMing advice with each other.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

Excellent idea! Thanks for the link.

[Publius]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

I picked up Fairy's Tale not too long ago and was going to run something for my brother's kids. Unfortunately, my brother just moved out to Reno before I had a chance to actually get together

 

Neat game for the mniche it fills, it has nice flow and a good feel to it for younger players. I was a bit worried it might be a bit "girly" but I never got a chance to find out.

[RPMiller]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

That is a perception that we've discussed with others. It is whatever you make of it. It can be just as dark and "masculine" as any game with the right story and players. While its focus is kids, it actually has a lot of depth to it and its simplicity makes it a great game to just bang out a game with your group with very little planning upfront. I would encourage any group to give it a shot just so they can see how well it flows and because it is so different from a lot of other games out there.

[Publius]

Re: Faerie's Tale

 

I would totally agree with that, one of the reasons I wanted to try it out with the kids. They didn't seem to have any negatiove reaction when we discussed it, but they are pretty affiable kids. I have been deprived of that opportunity however by his (rather sudden) moving across a big chunk of the continent, somewhat to my chagrin.

 

I had my map I was going to use and everything