Roman Eisele, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I’m back from the hills, catching up on books and movies. I’ve put together a list of recommended works to inspire you to set adventures in Feengrenze. Unlike other Appendix Ns, I’ll briefly explain why I included them on this list—think of these as mini-reviews of my favorite works from the library, Audible, or drivethrurpg.

Things to inspire you: Consume these to help imagine the Feengrenze

Witches Abroad By Terry Pratchett

This was the piece that started it all, the piece that led to the initial version of what would eventually become the Feengrenze, when the whole point was seeing what happened when story logic was slammed against reality until one broke. It is arguably the best book starring Granny Weatherwax and crew. The storybook set pieces that the Lancre Coven stumble through are delightfully zany in a way that only Terry Pratchett can pull off, and the deep ideas about stories behind the comedy hit home.

Lords and Ladies By Terry Pratchett

Not the best of Terry Pratchett’s work, but still worth a read for the elves. The way Sir Pratchett presented the elves is accurate to English and Scottish folklore and, more importantly, makes them dangerous not just to the body but also to the mind. In Discworld, elves are petty sociopaths who abduct pretty people and artistic sorts because their world is not pretty, and they lack any ability to create. They are the ultimate beglamored parasites. If that is not Feengrenze, I don’t know what is.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell/The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

A big reason for the new direction I took Sliberberg’s visual design was Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The book is also brimming with invented lore about the fey folk, which heavily influenced me when writing my update to my guide to Roleplaying the fey, in particular, how they are irrational and self-centered, almost to the point of being sociopaths. It is a bit slow and exposition-heavy, especially in its first half. There are lots of footnotes and lore, but the back half pays off exceptionally well for those who stick it out.

I also want to spotlight her short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu; each story is a fantastic little fable about mortals interacting with the fey folk, in line with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Of all the Discworld Novels, Going Postal, along with Making Money, are by far my favorites. It is in this book, along with contemporaries Thud, Snuff, and Unseen Academicals, that Ankh Morpork is at its most real for me. It is widely ranked among the best of the Discworld novels, and between the absurdity of a con man turned postmaster trying desperately to get the defunct postal service running, and a villain who is a thinly veiled satire of the Wolf of Wall Street sort, it’s a fun read and one of the main influences for the city of Sliberberg.

The Starless Sea By Erin Morgenstern

This one is hard to describe, but that is entirely fitting given its nature. The Starless Sea is such a singular work, blending past, present, and future, fiction and reality, and feeling mysterious by default and almost dream-like. It is a slow, meditative work that is not for everyone, but it’s the slow unfolding of the mystery that I found so engaging, and it left me with some new ideas that I have been trying to work into the setting. The realms of the Starless Sea and the Harbor are definitely fey adjacent, given their otherworldly nature, and the excerpts from the in-setting books that preface each chapter are a charming touch.

The Sandman By Neil Gaiman

I was never into comics until I read the Sandman Graphic novels by Neil Gaiman, and a lot of my more recent writing draws heavily on the series. The series is thought-provoking in a way few other comics are and explores ideas such as the nature of stories, the strange afterlives of gods, and the strange family dynamic of Dream and his siblings. The dreamlike nature of the Wyrdlands and wyrd magic, my attempts at philosophical ponderings, and the general surrealness of the setting have been, in part, inspired by the adventures of Morpheus and the Dreaming.

Howl’s Moving Castle By Hayao Miyazaki

The way that Mr Miyazaki adapts Diana Wynne Jones’ novel of the same name is brilliant, truly one of Mr Miyazaki’s masterpieces. The movie is a treat for the eyes, with various steampunk machines, such as the titular castle, serving as breakout stars and heavily inspiring the look of the scraplands and the various machines that have yet to be integrated into the setting. The castle’s interior also has a great, cozy vibe that I am trying to emulate with the Valley of New Mountainheart. There is also a lot of whimsy in the story, particularly in how the magic works. 

Labyrinth by Jim Henson

Labyrinth is a great movie; it’s a cult classic and one of my favorite fantasy films. It is also one of the few movies I’ve seen that really does justice to a fey world. The way the realm Sarah explores behaves is straight-up fey: paths change and appear out of nowhere, locations connect in nonsensical ways, and the characters she meets operate on fairytale logic. Also, David Bowie as Jareth is brilliant; I could not write a better Sidhe high fey if I tried.

Dolmenwood

I only heard about this setting a couple of months ago, and from the moment I saw it, there was a sense of Deja Vu. There is so much about the Dolmenwood and the Feengrenze that resonates with each other; it is uncanny, too many to list here. The books also have a really great visual style that I can only dream of imitating.

I have to give major props to Winter’s Daughter, one of the adventures published for the setting. It’s a perfect little fairytale romp with a very well-designed dungeon with interesting tricks.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride

This is an obvious inclusion, since fey creatures and other fairytale elements, like talking animals, feature heavily. It’s a really good fantasy anime with well-written characters and a great plot exploring the protagonist’s development as a mage. It also makes great use of the English countryside setting, and the portrayal of the folkloric elements is true to British mythology, and the invented creatures fit right in. I also love how the spells starting in the second season are in verse.

Things to use: Useful supplements and Rule Systems

Worlds without Number/ Godbound by Kevin Crawford

There is a reason Kevin Crawford is regarded as a rockstar in the OSR movement: his five roleplaying games are built for open-world play, and, more importantly, they each include a massive toolbox for building such worlds. Each one consists of a step-by-step guide to building a sandbox and random tables to help you create an open world, making it one of the ultimate tools for gamemasters. The best part of all: 4 out of 5 systems have free editions on Drivethrurpg.com.

Knave 2nd by Ben Milton

Knave, second edition, is here for the same reason as Worlds without Number: a massive number of random tables; there are random tables for everything from spells to dungeon rooms. This is a must-have if you are a dungeon master, just for the tables alone.

On Downtime and Demesnes By Courtney C. Campbell

On Downtime and Demesnes is a book to design a set of interlinked problems that DMs face when dealing with massive player fortunes, domain management, and running cities in general. This one book has rules and procedures for all the things the DMG lacks that can make a city come to life. Criminal justice, various forms of carousing, sages, hirelings, price tables, politicking, and more helpful content than you can use are here. And at 9 dollars, American is practically a steal.

Magical Industrial Revolution by Skerples

Magical Industrial Revolution is another great little book about running a city, specifically the example city of Endon, a Fever dream of Victorianism spiraling towards disaster. Still, much of the book can also be applied to other cities, such as Sliberberg. It packs a lot of interesting ideas into just 156 pages, covering magical invention, creating new spells and magic items, and of course, running cities.

Things to Play: Things to Run in the Feengrenze itself

The Dungeon Dozen By Jason Sholtis

I couldn’t stop laughing while reading this one. Jason Sholtis is one of the most delightful, zany writers in the OSR, and the Dungeon Dozen is a collection of the best d12 tables from his blog, each packed with interesting ideas. I need not say anything more.

Rackham Vale By Brian Saliba and Craig Schaffer

It is such a simple premise, a mini setting inspired by and using the public domain art of the British Illustrator Arthur Rackham, that it is a wonder nobody else thought of it. The minisetting of Rackham Vale is a perfect addition to Feengrenze. The book is packed with excellent, ready-to-use content and makes great use of Arthur Rackham’s art. Use it as is, without any changes whatsoever, or use the random tables and NPCs within.

Mythic Bastionland By Chris McDowell

The first time I read it, I could tell that this was something special. Chris McDowell has a way of creating these deeply weird settings and roleplaying systems that resonate with the general direction I am going with the Feengrenze. Mythic Bastionland, being a fantasy take on Into The Odd, is a perfect fit for the Feengrenze and chock full of interesting ideas and rules that can be lifted out of the game and plopped into a Feengrenze campaign with little fuss.

Summers End by Ben Milton

A collection of short, one-page, ready-to-go adventures for Ben Milton’s Knave system: six dungeons and six adventure hexes. All of them are excellent; many would fit well in various corners of the Feengrenze with little to no modification. They are the sort of thing that is perfect to whip out when you need a one-shot to run and no time to create something from scratch.

The Waking of Willoby Hall by Ben Milton

This is a master class in dungeon design. This dungeon has so many great ideas in a book that is only about thirty pages long. The central premise is excellent. There are lots of interesting tricks, traps, and strange undead NPCs to interact with. The dungeon is well jaquaesed, and the time pressure of the mansion waking up keeps the pacing crisp. It beats anything WOTC has put out in a long time.

Teeth: False Kingdom

The story game Teeth: False Kingdom won the 2025 silver Ennie for best free product, and the reason is obvious: it’s a riot. The premise is simple: the players are a group of horrible people jostling for position in the court of a doomed pretender king by fulfilling his often immoral, usually impossible quests. It is funny and, more importantly, for this post, the quests are the sort of immoral wild goose chases that you expect a high fey to send hapless adventurers on. Pick it up, it’s free, it’s funny, and brimming with personality.