Dark Fairytales

[MrEdwardNigma]

Probably done before, but I'm thinking about a particular campaign world here, one that I'd love to use once.

Basically, there's this world where all fairytales take place, and it's largely covered in forest and tiny little cosy villages. But hey, evolution happens everywhere, right? Things change. The amount of humans grows expansively, and humans are greedy, powerhungry.

The humans try to gain power by abusing the fairytales (Individually though, not as a group. The humans in this campaign world aren't very united). Some grow insanely powerfull because of this, and off course abuse their power, but none ever grow powerfull enough not to be knocked down at some point by another powerhungry fiend.

As the humans darken, so do the fairytales. The numbers of fairytale monster grow, while the cute little creatures so common in them become slaves to humans as the forest they live in dissapears and gets replaced with cities.

Eventually, the whole world is covered in one big city, even the oceans. It's still a medieval society, but they have made some advancements, such as blundarbusses and such. In daylight, the world is ruled by rich merchants and their greed, while by night the monsters come out of their hiding palces and tear up whomever is still on the streets. Below the houses lie incountable layers of older houses, which were simply built over, and in these dark abandoned places, lurk the most horrible creatures.

To make matters worse, cults have begun springing up, gatherings of the powerhungry, trying to ascend to power in different ways. there are those that trade in one of their senses to sharpen all others, making them very dangerous indeed. Others worship demons, trying to make them help them. Some find strenght in cannibalism, eating other humans to absorb their power. Eating monsters sometimes even. There's a cult that believes in the power of the carnal, a cult that worships mirrors and one that calls upon the ancient power of tarot.

And even though this world is so very dangerous, the city has no authority. None at all. This doesn't mean that it's a democracy. No, there is simply no-one bothering to govern the city, or any significant part of it. This means no laws, no police force, no taxes, no help for the needy. Sure, sometimes the people all lash out together at a murdered, hanging him without trail, and sometimes rich merchants decide they should help out the poor a bit by having food handed out, but none of these are certainties.

There are small centres of good forces though. Universities, spread throughout the world. These make money by researching and selling their finds to the rich. With this money, they have managed to establish a small armed force, called the Nightwatch, who patrol near the university at night. When you feel you're being stalked, you'd better hope you're somewhere near a university. The Nightwatch keeps monsters at bay and governs some rudementary form of law, but they can't handle all the darkness by themselves by far.

That is why there are roaming bands of Whackers. Brutish men, moving from town to town, extinguishing monsters for coin and beer. Whackers are very liked, despite their high prices and extraordinarily bad manners. If they come by, they can clear a district of monsters for a while. Their methods are crude though, to say the least. Wel, basically they just whack stuff with a club, hence whackers.

This huge city is a terrible maze, as you can imagine, and has never been charted completely. To this end, some universities have employed Cartographers, men who travel the world, trying to map it.

There is no magic on this world, despite all the magic creatures running around. Sure, magic powers can be gained, but there is no such thing as actual wizards or sorcerors. The closest thing to that class are Alchemists, striving for the three basic goals of alchemy: transforming matter, achieving eternal life, and creating the homonculus. Basically they just make bombs and potions though, and study lore.

Other people who study lore are Scholars, who work in the university and who know a lot more of it than mere alchemists, and Bards, who travel the world telling tales and seducing women. Bards are a lot like jesters in this campaign world. They can throw knives, breathe fire, do cardtricks and more stuff like that. They also don't play the lute in this world, but a drum or banjo.

A last class would be the travelling barbers. Now, these aren't just barbers, they basically serve as doctors, dentists and surgeons as well. And they can do quite a bit of damage with a cleaver.

Examples of monsters in this campaign world: Grues, Ghouls, Ogres (The I'm gonna grind your bones into my bread kind), Trolls (Made out of stone, lurking under bridges), Redcaps (Mean bloodthirsty garden gnomes who die their pointy hats in their victim's blood), the Big Bad wolf, and so on.


Suggestions, comments, and statting of monsters, classes or anything else is welcome. Just to be clear, player races are all humans or fairy tale races. No D&D elves and dwarves and such.

[DracoDei]

Very interesting concept.... I would consider that even if all the natural areas are gone you probably want to keep the farmland around... people gotta eat you know (a commonly forgotten problem in many settings)!

[togapika]

Sadistic Halfling Barber with straight razors.....

[Hyrael]

Very interesting concept.... I would consider that even if all the natural areas are gone you probably want to keep the farmland around... people gotta eat you know (a commonly forgotten problem in many settings)!

Most Mega-city settings, (like Ravnica) get around the food problem by having nature actually as a part of the city. in certain places, Ivy is everywhere, you cant see the taller buildings for all the trees, and parks are blurred with residential areas. Food is grown in massive greenhouses or on rooftops, and there's a guild of necromancer druids tasked with providing a staple food source. the golgari handle garbage-collection and distribute, for free, a sort of oaty gruel that keeps everyone from starving. Best not to think what it's made of, though. much of the meat comes from underground mushroom farms that specialized cattle graze on. or city-dwelling animals. there's also a guild of crazy magitech wizards who designed and maintain the waterworks, and so on.

But, that assumes alot of magi-tech, social advancement, and variety. you setting sounds like uniform dingy ****ty-town. very atmospheric, and great for running a campaign in, but there's just nowhere for the farms to fit.

[MrEdwardNigma]

There's greenhouses alright, but those are only for the rich. The poor have to make due by eating mushrooms grown in the underground complexes and animals which are simply kept in the streets. No magi-tech needed for any of that, except maybe the greenhouses, but as I said, they are more advanced than traditional D&D for example.

[pseudovere]

Sadistic Halfling Barber with straight razors.....

MIDGET SWEENEY TODD!!!!!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I love that movie...

Anyway, the campaign world sounds awesome. This world seems like a megalomaniac's best friend. Establishing a stable government on even a section of the city would be a really fun challenge in that campaign setting.

I don't really have that much in the fairy tale lore skill, so I'll don't think I can help you much. However, I look forward to watching this grow.

[Icewalker]

That sounds very interesting...I love the idea.

If you finish it and run it as a pbp here, I would totally play a cartographer of some sort. That'd be awesome.

[Diakos]

I'm assuming that the "And so on" end to the monster listing means that there are many more, if not one group to consider from a Dark Fairytalre is funnily enough faries and fey.
Not mild mannered tricksters, but stealing babies and exchanging them with werewolf cubs, luring travelers to parties and have them dance themselves to death/wake up 20 yeard older/later and their "travelling bands" that make towns (or just the poulation) dissapear.

[MrEdwardNigma]

I'm assuming that the "And so on" end to the monster listing means that there are many more, if not one group to consider from a Dark Fairytalre is funnily enough faries and fey.
Not mild mannered tricksters, but stealing babies and exchanging them with werewolf cubs, luring travelers to parties and have them dance themselves to death/wake up 20 yeard older/later and their "travelling bands" that make towns (or just the poulation) dissapear.

That would be the kind of element that would go into the game, yes. And so on did quite mean there are many more. Good idea.

[Nostri]

Sounds very cool. I go away for a couple weeks and there's all this amazing stuff on the boards.

As for suggestions for the settings I'd say that you should have some areas of "wilderness" in the city in patches. Not actual grasslands or wide open areas or anything like that but places where the city has been abandoned and been grown over. Where the weeds have grown through the cobble stones and the greenhouses have been broken letting their plants go. Perhaps even small areas that used to be town squares or parks that have been completely taken over by thick and dark forests where packs of wolves (perhaps with a 'were' in front) lair. Or a fallen section of the city that was built over a lake that has since mostly caved in and been abandoned because of the giant crocodiles that have taken up residence.

The other thing I'd suggest is having dwarves around but not seen that often. Not the honorable Scottish warrior folk with pointy helmets and axes that appear so often in D&D but Nordic dwarves- shortish folk that are the best craftsmen in all the worlds. They wouldn't be a player race (these guys are fae or if not darn close) and would only venture from their mountain homes to do business. I'm not really good at emplaining things concisely though so check out this Wiki article for a better idea of what I'm talking about.

[Engineer]

That sounds very interesting...I love the idea.

If you finish it and run it as a pbp here, I would totally play a cartographer of some sort. That'd be awesome.

Yes. Cartographers sound awesome!

[Metal Head]

If you want ideas for monsters and stuff then buy a big collection of fairy tales in a book for inspiration.

[MrEdwardNigma]

Sounds very cool. I go away for a couple weeks and there's all this amazing stuff on the boards.

As for suggestions for the settings I'd say that you should have some areas of "wilderness" in the city in patches. Not actual grasslands or wide open areas or anything like that but places where the city has been abandoned and been grown over. Where the weeds have grown through the cobble stones and the greenhouses have been broken letting their plants go. Perhaps even small areas that used to be town squares or parks that have been completely taken over by thick and dark forests where packs of wolves (perhaps with a 'were' in front) lair. Or a fallen section of the city that was built over a lake that has since mostly caved in and been abandoned because of the giant crocodiles that have taken up residence.

The other thing I'd suggest is having dwarves around but not seen that often. Not the honorable Scottish warrior folk with pointy helmets and axes that appear so often in D&D but Nordic dwarves- shortish folk that are the best craftsmen in all the worlds. They wouldn't be a player race (these guys are fae or if not darn close) and would only venture from their mountain homes to do business. I'm not really good at emplaining things concisely though so check out this Wiki article for a better idea of what I'm talking about.

The plan was indeed to have abandoned areas with ruins and such, where monsters lurk (though not per se wolves). I personally don't really like the idea of the dwarves, as most would just imagine them to be the traditional dwarves anyways, and I think there's enough variety in fairytale creatures not to have the need for them.

[Diakos]

Dark Fairytales AND Ravnica'esqe world...
If anyone ever runs this, do give me a prod.

i can't really think of anything this setting is missing, well aside form the various king/duke-doms/city districts and the people that pretends to/thinks they/actually do, rule them.

[Edit:] But I'M missing a proper space button...

[MrEdwardNigma]

Good news, everyone!

I've decided to flesh this out using actual rules. I'll be using GURPS Lite, which I hope will be suiting. If anyone can offer any ideas or help, they're welcome.

[StoryKeeper]

Not mild mannered tricksters, but stealing babies and exchanging them with werewolf cubs, luring travelers to parties and have them dance themselves to death/wake up 20 yeard older/later and their "travelling bands" that make towns (or just the poulation) dissapear.

Ah, always nice to see someone else knows how un-tinkerbellish fey used to be.

As far as monsters and such, fey are absolutely perfect. I kind of liked the suggestion that you also use elves and dwarves (though not as playable races). A nice werewolf encounter along teh lines of the big bad wolf could be fun (i.e. a girl in a red hood needs help with her granny, who wasn't eaten by a wolf but IS a wolf.) Hmm... speaking of wolves, perhaps a pig-people race could be fun... but then, that may be getting a bit too strange. A lot of the most traditional monsters are what it really called for in monsters (hags, ogres, giants, etc.), but a book of fairy tales will probably also give you some interesting and unique creatures.

Oh, and I personally think that Baba Yaga would be a great character to put in here somewhere.

[Caracol]

Ah, always nice to see someone else knows how un-tinkerbellish fey used to be.

As far as monsters and such, fey are absolutely perfect. I kind of liked the suggestion that you also use elves and dwarves (though not as playable races). A nice werewolf encounter along teh lines of the big bad wolf could be fun (i.e. a girl in a red hood needs help with her granny, who wasn't eaten by a wolf but IS a wolf.) Hmm... speaking of wolves, perhaps a pig-people race could be fun... but then, that may be getting a bit too strange. A lot of the most traditional monsters are what it really called for in monsters (hags, ogres, giants, etc.), but a book of fairy tales will probably also give you some interesting and unique creatures.

Oh, and I personally think that Baba Yaga would be a great character to put in here somewhere.

I totally agree. This setting is awesome and I would like it to be my first play by post experience, if you have in mind to do a game based on this.

[MrEdwardNigma]

I totally agree. This setting is awesome and I would like it to be my first play by post experience, if you have in mind to do a game based on this.

I do have that in mind actually, but I have only just started working on fleshing this out using GURPS.