Table of contents

Roleplaying the Feyfolk Redux (You are Here)

The Feyfolk Roleplay Toolkit

More Fey For You

Folklore of Faerie

About six months ago, I published an article called Roleplaying Tips for Captivating Fey in D&D. It was not exceptionally well organized; there were good ideas, but they were poorly explained in long blocks of text. Shortly afterward, I changed the entire cosmology of the Feengrenze setting, which is fine; these things happen. I decided to create an updated guide version that includes the latest worldbuilding and gets straight to the point about how fey should act.

This also marks the debut of a new format for publishing my monthly digital zine. Instead of one post up to 30 pages long on standard letter paper, each will be cut into multiple shorter posts for an easier reading experience. So, without any further ado, let’s dive in.

Half, Full, and High Fey

Before we discuss how fey behave, we have to discuss the difference between half, full, and High Fey.

• Half fey refers to any Faerie creature born outside of Faerie or any creature from another Metauniverse or the Mortal Universes that has lived 8 years and three days in the Metauniverse.
• Full fey are any creature that was born within Faerie. The traits we will discuss will refer primarily to how Full Fey acts.
• High Fey are the most powerful beings among the Fey, also called archfey in the baseline D&D books. They tend to rule great domains within the realm of Faerie and possess powers comparable to the greatest wizards or demigods. 

Roleplaying the Fey

Keep the following tenets in mind when role-playing the fey. Given the three types of fey we have discussed, I will clarify which advice applies to a given subtype of fey creature.

All fey creatures are Overtly Emotional.

Faerie is a realm charged with emotions, with seemingly every tree, rock, and landscape expressing a particular mood. All feyfolk, half and full fey alike, are ruled by their feelings. Even the high fey struggle to regulate their emotions. Feyfolk tend towards much stronger emotions than mortal folk, and they always wear their hearts on their sleeves.

All fey

• Show, don’t tell. Fey wear their hearts on their sleeves constantly. When a fey is feeling an emotion, have them show it through mannerisms and actions.
• Blow up the emotion a fey is feeling. Fey don’t simply become happy, they become overjoyed. When they become angry, they get enraged.
• The emotions of the fey folk tend to be swingy. When roleplaying fey folk lean into this, have them explode into anger without warning, then swing back into joy if the pc’s flatter them sufficiently, and then to some completely other emotion at the drop of a hat.

The Fey are Irrational and favor intuition in decision-making.

Faerie is not a realm of logic; that would be the purview of the Great Lattice. The whole of the Metauniverse has a dreamy, whimsical quality that defies any attempt to explain its workings rationally. This tendency has rubbed off on the fey folk; all full fey tend to be irrational, preferring to go with their gut instinct in decision-making. In fact, most full fey will struggle to understand logical and mathematical reasoning when it is explained to them. Even half-fey who originate from the mortal worlds will eventually find themselves prone to go with their gut

All Fey

• When role-playing, feyfolk follow their gut instincts when making decisions, using their current emotional state and opinions as a guide.

Full Fey

• When the players ask you to explain a fey creature’s conclusions, use dream logic and appeals to pathos.
• If the players try to explain something using logic or logic adjacent things like math, roleplay a fey creature as being confused and frustrated before dismissing the reasoning altogether for an illogical reason

All fey species are highly opinionated and stubborn, but are prone to changing their minds on a whim.

“It’s easier to find two pixies who agree on which flower is prettiest in a garden,” is a common expression among the mortal folk of the Feengrenze to suggest that a task is challenging. This is a gross over-dramatization, but it hits a core truth: Fey folk tend to be highly opinionated and as stubborn as mules, willing to die on a hill for their beliefs. 

A member of any species of fey folk will have many opinions about everything, usually illogical and often contradictory. Once it gets an idea into its head, no amount of convincing will dislodge it. However, the fey are fickle; just because they believe something wholeheartedly today does not mean they will believe it tomorrow, though why they change their minds is nonsensical to mortal folk.

All Fey species

• Have tables of miscellaneous opinions at hand if you need to create a fey character on the fly or create a list of the views for a Major NPC
  • The opinions need not make sense or work together as a rational whole
• Use their opinions to guide their behaviour in conjunction with the previous topic
• It requires incredible circumstances to convince a fey to change their mind. Do not let the player character change a fey’s mind unless they go to extraordinary lengths.
• If you think it will exasperate your players, have a fey character change their opinion on a topic and invent a nonsense reason for it.

The Full Fey do not understand the concept of Permanent Harm or Death.

Neither death nor decay exists in Faerie. As such, all fey and all mortals in Faerie are immortal and do not age. Evidence suggests that even the phenomenon of injury might be transcendental in Faerie; tales telling that wounds heal almost instantaneously in Faerie are as common as mayflies. As such, most full fey seem unable to grasp the concept of death or injury as being permanent states in other worlds unless they have lived long enough outside of faerie to witness death firsthand.

Full fey:

• Unless a member of the Full Fey folk had the concept of Death explained in a way they can understand or experienced it firsthand, they will see no wrong in pranks or tricks that result in serious harm.
• Full fey are natural risk takers, whether in Faerie or out of it. They act with complete confidence in their inability to die, regardless of the circumstances.

Happiness is good

In the absence of death and harm from Faerie, the basis of morality among the Fey is happiness and pleasure. Good acts increase happiness and joy, while evil acts cause unhappiness and sadness. However, since every feyfolk has opinions on what brings joy and sorrow, there is no consensus on good or evil acts. The feyfolk do, however, recognize that an act is not malicious if the perpetrator was trying to create happiness, even if it causes harm, destruction, or even unhappiness.

All Fey Species

• When dealing with the players, remember the fey folk’s opinions, especially what makes them happy or sad. They will judge player actions on these criteria.
• A fey will be perfectly alright with causing serious harm, property damage, or even death if it thinks it will bring happiness to anyone, especially themselves.  

An object’s Beauty and sentimentality are its values.

Faerie is overflowing with abundance compared to every inhabited world in the multiverse. Practically every tree and bush bears fruit at all times, and forage is plentiful. In this environment, one would expect a scarcity-based view of value not to develop, and you would be right. 

To the fey folk, the value of a thing is its beauty, its sentimental value, or its ability to bring joy. Again, we see that the fey’s wildly varying opinions prevent a consensus on what is valuable. There are, however, certain things that many fey find valuable.

• Shiny things like gems, coins, or baubles, purely for their shine and beauty
• Many fey, goblinoids, and saytrs in particular,  will find interesting alcohol worth trading for
• The three common fairy species are known to have a sweet tooth and will gladly accept sweets as a price.
• Favors are the closest thing the fey have to a currency

As such, barter is the natural default for all trade in the Faerie, and it is not uncommon for traders to riffling through bags or minds to find a suitable price for an item.

All Fey Species

• When the players need to trade with a fey creature, assign values to what the creature has for trade based on their sentimental value or beauty; the more of either, the more expensive
• When trading, have fey creatures insist on rummaging through the players’ bags to find something appealing.
• Do not restrict yourself to physical things. Intangibles like memories, feelings, and sensations can also be traded. 
• You might also allow players to trade a service done or a future favor for an item; a well-sung song might be worth more than all the gold in a kingdom to a pixie.

The Fey have a nebulous understanding of the idea of property.

Many half fey of the fey species variety, and most full fey have a bad habit of borrowing or trading for things without first asking their owners for permission. True, they provide something of “equal value” in trade, or leave a note promising they will return it; however, given their nature as the fey, they might “pay” with something beautiful but worthless or return it centuries later. As for the fey, they do not seem to care much if someone borrows something of theirs without asking first, so long as they leave some sort of promise to return it or leave something of “value” in its place.

All Fey species

• If you think it might be an enjoyable distraction, have a fey creature “borrow” something from the players without asking, leaving something in trade or a promise to return it later.
• If you promise to return it, a fey will allow you to borrow any of their possessions.

Most Fey are easily slighted and are prone to grudges.

Many fey, especially full fey, have delicate egos and take offense easily, especially if someone does not respect their opinions or damage things they care about. It is very easy for mortals to insult a fey creature accidentally; seemingly harmless remarks might be insulting to a faerie or goblin, or the players might pick a flower in a fey’s front garden without realizing that they were on somebody’s property. Species native to Faerie have excellent memories and are not obliged to live and let live, so they tend to hold grudges for a very long time. 

All Fey

• If a player character does something to incur the wrath of a fey folk, such as insulting them, stealing from them, or damaging something they care about, have the creature hold a grudge.
• A fey creature will hold the grudge until the subject of its wrath apologizes to the creature.
  • Typically, this apology will take the form of a gift, flattery, promises to make amends, or self-inflicted humiliation.
• A fey’s grudge need not be against a specific person; it can be against everybody with red hair, all dwarves, or wizards.

The Fey live in the moment and have short attention spans.

Time does not exist in Faerie in any appreciable way. True, most beings in Faerie have a sense of things happening before now, and they think of things to do after now, but the past, present, and future do not exist, just an endless now. As such, most fey folk, both half and full fey, tend to live in the moment, doing whatever they want, with little thought to what happens next or the consequences of their actions. Likewise, they are easily distracted by anything new and shiny that catches their eyes.

All Fey

• Unless the fey your roleplaying is a high fey or a hag, do not make plans for them beyond, “what am I going to do next”
• Be confused if the players mention plans or goals that reference anything beyond the next 5 minutes. This is especially important for full fey.
• Derail the conversation if something catches the fey folk’s eye.

The fey tend towards Idleness and Mischief.

Because they need not work hard for their substance and have no future to plan for, the fey folk tend towards idleness and the pursuit of pleasure and diversion in all things. They tend to devise games and entertainments for themselves. Even outside Faerie, full fey tend to pursue distraction and amusement. The most common of these will be pranks and other forms of mischief on each other.

All fey

• Fey can get bored easily and wander off if a conversation is not interesting enough.
• All Fey tend to be nosy; they like butting into other people’s lives in search of entertainment, and they might tag along with player characters on their adventures or interesting townsfolk.
• The fey love games of chance and parties

Full Fey

• The Full Fey are drawn to novelty like moths to a flame. They are especially attracted to gossip, stories, music, plays, and books about the previous items.
• Full Fey will pull magic pranks on characters they think are dull or stupid, even mid-conversation

The Full Fey have magic and use it to solve all their problems

Faerie is the wellspring of magic dealing with life, seeming, and bewitching, and the entire Metauniverse hums with its power. Druids tap this power when they use their abilities, as do wizards when they cast illusions and enchantments. The full fey can also use this magic, but to them it is more intrinsic, more a part of who they are.

The fey do not rely on spells to cast magic. While some magic, like invisibility, might be intrinsic, most faerie magic boils down to the caster asking (or demanding) the environment to enact their will, typically in verse or rhyme.

All Full Fey

• Give fey creatures cantrips and spells to use when creating their stat blocks. Spells from the druid spell list or the illusion or enchantment schools work well for fey folk.
• When a fey creature casts a spell, frame it as a demand or plea to the environment — “Winds, awaken and drive my foe away!”
  • If you’re feeling ambitious, roleplay the fey request in verse or rhyme.
• Give fey magic items that misdirect, beguile, or connect to nature
• Use their magic liberally to make mischief for the players.

The Fey always abide by the Letter of any Promise or Oath and expect others to do the same.

Promises have power in Faerie. It is the glue that holds Fey society together and the closest thing the fey have to a currency. Without controlling scarce resources, land ownership, or military glory to denote their power, the primary way the lords and ladies of Faeire rank themselves among their courts is by the number of oaths of fealty, deals outstanding, and favors owed to them they possess. Among the Fey oathbreakers are the lowest of the low and the most reviled of all, plagued by curses and shunned by their fellow fey.

The fey always abide by the letter of a promise or oath made in Faerie; such things are verbal contracts, which are always made with curses laced into the wording. However, the fey only abide by or care about the word of an oath or promise, not the spirit. All fey will choose the words of their promises carefully to give themselves the greatest reward from promise and to prevent them from making oaths they cannot fulfill. This fact has often tripped up mortalfolk who deal with Feyfolk.

All Fey

• Treat the Oaths and promises the players make to a fey creature like an event. This is not just a promise; it is a verbal contract that is as binding as an infernal contract.
  • Make it sound like the players agree to a verbal contract and seal the promise with a curse that will activate if either party breaks their end of the bargain.
  • If either party breaks their word, they will be affected by the curse..
• Choose your words carefully when a fey makes a promise or the players make one to a fey. Unless the players are good friends with a fey creature, they will always try to twist the word of a promise to benefit themselves more than the players.
• If the Players break their word, have the character they made the promise shun them and refuse to have anything to do with them.
  • Word travels quickly among the fey, and the players will soon get branded as oathbreakers and more broadly shunned.
• Fey creatures always abide by the exact wording of a promise, especially if it goes against the spirit of the pledge. Use this to cause all sorts of mischief.
  • But remember, you must ultimately keep your word

Many Fey are Liars, but they will never say outright falsehoods.

It is said among the fey folk that their kind’s first oath to Faolan and Nimah is that they would never tell outright falsehoods, and like any promise, they honor that oath to the letter but not the spirit. Just because the Fey cannot blatantly lie does not mean that the Fey are incapable of lying. The fey lie through omission, half-truths, riddles, and illusion, and many faerie creatures lie often to alleviate boredom or because they feel like it today.

All fey Species

• Remember, all Fey tend towards mischief, and full Fey are frequently bored. Lying is a quick way to prank an unsuspecting mark.
• When roleplaying a lying fey, use half-truths, omit details, couch your meaning in riddles, create word salads using long, obtuse words, or use illusion magic if it’s available to misdirect the players.
  • Remember, you simply cannot tell the players a falsehood; you must always use the truth to lie.
• Let the players catch you in lies if they are in the know, and roleplay the fey as sheepish for being caught in a lie.

The Fey are good houseguests and good hosts, and they expect others to be the same.

The fey folk’s second great covenant to Faolan and Nimah was that they would treat visitors to their dwellings well and be good guests in return; likewise, they honor this covenant to the letter. There is no safer place or greater company than in the household of the fey folk. So utterly sacred is this pledge that even hags and goblins are obliged to provide hospitality to anyone who chance upon their dwellings. T

he converse is also true. Fey are excellent house guests and expect callers to behave likewise in their homes. However, this covenant has broken down somewhat for the half fey that do not call Faerie their home, and as such, be warned when accepting the hospitality of a hag or goblin.

All fey in Faerie

• If a fey invites the players into their home or establishment, roleplay them bending over backwards to ensure the players are comfortable.
  • Stay within reason; however, making too many demands of one’s host is considered rude by all fey folk.
• Likewise, a fey invited into the home of a mortal will act like a perfect guest, for specific definitions of the word perfect that might vary with the nature of the species.
• One of the fastest ways to get on a fey creature’s bad side is to abuse their hospitality. Player characters who are rude, improper, steal, or otherwise take advantage of their host will be quickly ejected from a fey’s home.
  • The converse is also true. Hosts who mistreat fey guests are likely to find themselves cursed.

Most Fey folk are Vegans.

Almost everything in Faerie is smart enough to talk: trees, flowers, animals, rocks, you name it, it can speak. As such, most fey, goblinoids being the most notable exceptions, refuse to eat animal meat or eggs because someone was killed to produce them. Granted, there are trees in Faerie from which fruit of a most peculiar nature grows that replicate the taste of meat, fowl, fish, and myriad other things.

All fey

• Most full fey will be horrified if the players kill a creature for their meat and may attack them viciously, depending on their nature.
• A fey creature will not willingly eat animal meat, fowl meat, fish meat, or eggs. Milk and cheese are permitted reluctantly, but never flesh.

The fey species are disturbed by the sight of Iron.

It is well-known that cold iron, or iron that has been shaped without feeling the kiss of a flame or heat, is deadly to fey. It burns to the touch, leaves permanent scars, and if cut, will cause the cut fey creature to wither away as if they were poisoned. However, most fey, hobgoblins being the most notable exception, cannot tell the difference between cold iron and regular iron or even between iron and steel.

All fey species

• When roleplaying a fey, have them make wary, nervous glances at players who are visibly carrying an iron or steel weapon.
• Fey will not willingly touch anything made of iron or steel, even under threat of death.
• When a player draws an iron weapon, have fey folk recoil in horror at the sight of iron.