I'm putting together some adventures based around Dinas Fford and need some more info on the Fey, as they are obviously major players in the area.

Are the Fey a WWG special? If so, can we get some more information about them?
If not, where do I find them?

Hi Zenguy.

Glad you're working Dinas Ffordd into your campaign!

The Arcraetian Fey are indeed specific to WorldWorks. If they are "from" anywhere, it's Kevin Jordan's readings about the Tuatha de Danann and other legends of fairies that predate modern RPGs.

Racial stats and some description of the Raven Glen variety are in the Combat Book in Dinas Ffordd: The Seed of War. Across Arcraetia, the Fey are not such major players as they used to be. A once-great race, they have retreated in recent millennia, with scattered colonies dwelling in wilderness spots called "shees". Each shee is its own society of a few hundred Fey, gathered around a naturally-occurring gate into another plane of existence: Annfwn, the faery realm. Fey vary widely: some appear as diminutive pixies or grotesque gnomes, others as grand elf-like folk. All the various shee pay tribute to one great Fairy Court, its location and monarchy unknown to mortals. Fey interaction with ordinary folk is limited to occasional trickery, plus high-handed treatment of any who dare to enter their enclaves.

The shee closest to Dinas Ffordd is Raven Glen, in Crenn. There will be more about the Fey and their origins and destiny in future Arcraetia materials, but for now Dinas Ffordd is your best source. Link below in case for some reason you don't have it. For those who play Savage Worlds, the upcoming Savage version of DF1 naturally contains SW stats for Raven Glen Fey.

Hope this helps!

-- Joel

Dinas Ffordd: The Seeds of War:
http://worldworksgames.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=164

Okay, this set just jumped way up on the "need to buy" list. I liked the addition to Villageworks and other modules, but wasnt interested in the RPG part since we dont play right now. The wife has been doing lots of study on the Fey and the Sidhe (or Sheed as I think it is corectly pronounced), and I find myself painting the occasional Reaper figures for her on this subject any time we get out to the local game shop. It will be interesting to see them in the "historical" info behind the RPG info. May even get the Alternative Armies' game Celtos and see if that works with the module.

Thanks Joel,

Yes, the deeper Fey background is fascinating and makes a great addition to Arcraetia. (For a good read and introduction to the grittier 'reality' of the Fey try Cecelia Dart Thornton's Bitterbynde series, starting with "The I'll Made Mute".)

As for the DF adventures:

I had been planning to have unseelie (malign) Fey from Vael as masterminds behind some long term bad stuff happening in the mountains of east Falcony (the driving force behind the series adventures I'm putting together). The background being some Vael Fey consolidating power over some the Grey Gnoll tribes and looking to expand their influence west. This is a group that would certainly have an interest in opportunities that arise from the increasingly unstable situation around DF.

Using the Vael Fey like this has a number of GM'ing advantages, beyond the immediate background to the adventures I'm preparing:

• They provide a ready made excuse for ad-hoc or more organized adventures and, because they operate from a distance, the players never need to encounter then directly.
• Being Fey, their influence can disappear just as easily as it appeared - which means they can be out of the way when other major things happen - all easily explained (if necessary) by some fickle change in the flow of the Fey courts themselves.
• They provide a ready excuse for encounters with evil bad guys of pretty much any sort (grey gnolls, and anything else the unseelie Fey decide to conjure up - orcs, wraiths, you name it, the unseelie Fey can provide it), which makes it much easier to incorporate generic d20 adventures into the area.

Would this still be consistent with the longer term direction of DF and Arcrateria?

Thanks,
Zen

p.s. I turns out there is some (d20) 'Fey' material out there already

• WotC have a bunch of articles on Fey (here) which suggests they've done something in this area before
• Lions Denn Press have an Iconic Bestiary: Classic Fey
• Goodman Games have a Complete Guide to Fey (d20)

There may be more, just haven't found it yet.

Hi ZG --

Beyond doubt, your plan is consistent enough with plans for Arcraetia that you should feel no hesitation in using it. It's your campaign, after all, and your ideas sound fun to boot.

Without giving too much away, Vael is definitely a source of malign influences and a group of malicious Vael Fey would not be a stretch.

Thanks for the other Fey sources -- I'll check them out. Fey have of course been appearing in literature (as opposed to folklore) since at least Spenser and Shakespeare, and we owe D&D elves to Tolkien's interpretation of the old legends. In terms of more modern books, let me also recommend "Kingdoms of Elfin", by Sylvia Townsend Warner, and the Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance.

I hope you find the definitions of Fey powers and personality in DF1 to be of help. Thanks for playing!

-- Joel

Thanks Joel,

It's shaping up nicely, and my D&D group take so long to do things (mainly because we often only manage a session a month) that I'm hoping to have this series of adventures really well detailed before they get to them.

I've a couple of other questions but they're not about the Fey so, to make it easier for others to find, will put one in the relevant thread and create a separate thread for the other.

Cheers,
Zen