Kids and Fairies, Design ideas and questions

[Justin Smith]

Okay, to cover the ground of the Big Idea thread, my game is about special children with problems who get fairy companions which help them overcome said problems.

Right now, I've got a healthy start and some significant resources for getting types of Fae. My question is twofold:
1. what kinds of Fae would you like to have included? This can be specific creatures, general themes or even a request for creatures from a certain culture.

2. what kinds of challenges would you like your character to face? So far, I'm thinking that "kid issues" would be centermost, things like bullying, self-esteem, standing up to parents, and the like. Any particular child-challenge I shouldn't miss?

[Mike Olson]

I'd recommend checking out Fairy's Tale, if you haven't already. That game breaks fae down into sprites, pixies, brownies, and pookas (and their evil counterparts: goblins, redcaps, phoukas... and... er... well, I don't have the book in front of me, so don't quote me on this). In any event, PCs in Fairy's Tale aren't kids, but the fairies themselves.

However you're breaking the kids down as PCs, it might be a good idea to have a type of fae per "thing" -- attribute, trait, whatever -- to make it easier to pair the kid with a fae that plays to his strengths.

Monsters and Other Childish Things treads some of this same territory, too -- kids with supernatural/otherworldly companions -- so that'd be another good one to read, if you haven't already. You don't want to copy someone else's game, but neither do you want to shut yourself off from possible inspiration.

As for challenges, I think that's a good start. Along the lines of self-esteem, what about facing fears? Or standing up to other kids -- i.e., peer pressure? Are you picturing a game where the ultimate goal is to be a good, respectful kid, or to have adventures and thereby mature?

[Justin Smith]

Darn, and here I thought I was breaking new ground. Oh, well, no such luck.

Peer pressure is one that I had completely missed out on. Thanks.

I am hoping to have a wide variety of Fae, each with particular affinities and kinds of challenges that they tend to seek out, but not having it set in stone.

Right now, I'm writing up the PC creation section, and part of this is being chosen by a Fae. They tend to either be Characatures or Mirrors. Characatures are exaggerated reflections of the kid-- a troublemaker of a kid has a goblin who is the personal incarnation of trouble. The Mirror is a reflection of the kid, but everything is reversed-- a shy kid that aviods conflict with that same troublemaking goblin. In either case, the role of the Fae is to press on the kid's Issue (the problem that they hope to resolve.) In this way, I hope that the Fae will match up with the kids correctly, but at the same time allowing players who have a particular favorite variety of fairy to have their way as well.

[Ron Stanley]

I like the idea of Mirrors or Caricatures.

Were you seeing this as a more serious, almost sinister game, or more lighthearted and fun?

I would really like a design-your-own imaginary friend, almost out of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. What if the kids were pregenerated, but the Fae were developed more by the players?... which mirrors the situation these kids find themselves in... trapped in their own crappy bodies and situations, but using their imaginations to escape somehow.

You could still limit what the Fae could do, say something like, okay your Imaginary Friend can look just like Godzilla or My Little Pony or Free Willy, or be a car that can fly and go underwater, but you don't get to ride in it, and it mostly helps you with your homework and intimidates bullies.

Child challenges: siblings, teachers, irritable or incompetent crossing guards, bullies, bullies, bullies. Kids should have some kind of obsession... a favorite television show, action hero, toy, doll, game, collectible card series, fast-food restaurant, something they love that is constantly being thwarted by siblings, parents, authority figures. Mortal Coil makes you pick passions... what if you made characters pick an Obsession, a Nemesis, and a (malevolent) Authority Figure? The Nemesis and the Authority Figure would constantly be trying to take away the kid's Obsession, resulting in conflict... which the Fae could help the kid resolve in his favor.

[Arpie]

Well, I didn't really like that Grim supplement for d20 they did, so I'm hoping for a more light-hearted game, myself. I don't mind elements of the dark - you need to have a threat for any good adventure story (and I assume this is adventure) but I just feel a little sick of the anti-hero child meme.

That being said, I'd like to point out that I don't care if it's new ground. And PLEASE don't take that stuff about Fairy's Tale seriously. Make something else.

What MIGHT be neat is if you avoid defining the fey or if you define them in HUGE categories. Remember that most fey are, to some extent, shapeshifters in folklore. Or kin to ghosts. Or shapeshifting ghosts.

I think you can find more inspiration for this game if you look to your own dreams of what childhood fun you could have with a magical friend. I like that a lot better. And if you give it a touch of reality as a Fey Creature, then all the better. It's nice to find out that you gave form to something that needed it.

I don't know? Is this inspiring? Is this the track you wanted to take? I wish I'd been able to respond sooner.

Here's some nifty childhood traumas and some broadly categorized fey "types" each based on types of fantasy lit.

Childhood Trauma
- Sibling Rivalry
- Absent Parents/Latchkey Kid
- Dependence on Security Blanket/Stuffed Animal
- The Creative Impulse Gone Bad (Lying, Vandalism)
- The Mean Teacher
- Whatever the Hell Polyana's Problem Was (Compulsive Optomism?)

Formless Fairies Types Matched to Bad Fantasy Genres
Djinn or Grine - Arabian Nights (duh!)
Kami (japanese) or Hsien (chinese) - Chinoiserie (fanciful version of "The Orient")
Phynoderie - Authurian/Celtic Crap (sadly, a must-have for faerie it seems)
Asuras or Devas or Ijmere ("twins") - "Lost World" or Jungle Advenure type
Encantados, Tiki, Tapairu or Kapuas - Voodoo, "Magical Realsim" type stories
Lychie, Leshye, Leshii, Lushies, Lutins, Lushins or Liches - Ghosts, Goblins & Gingerbread (Hympe, Impa, Ympe also works)
Empusa - neoclassical, pseudo-egyptian, "Mythic Age" or diminished gods types

(I don't know if this helps or not. I find that having a list to work from often cuts out a few ardurous steps - but if the list doesn't work! Ugh!)

[Justin Smith]

I'm going to rewrite a bit of the text here. I'm going to include a darkness dial, a topic of discussion before beginning the game. Or at least I plan to when I get over this migrane. Migranes suck.
As it stands, the game is somewhat dark: it's about kids with problems, and some of those problems can be pretty grim. I've never read Grim, so I cannot make a true comparison. However, I really wouldn't describe the kids as "anti-heroes." Really, these are fundamentally good kids. The kids aren't dark, but their circumstances may be.

One of the key inspirations for this game is to some degree Spiderwick. The kids in the story each have their issue, and their contact with the "wonderous world around you" forces them to confront those issues. Father abandonment issues are pretty serious stuff, but the troublemaker twin wasn't grim or gritty himself.

If I could get DiTerlizzi to illustrate (fat chance,) it would rock.

[Mike Olson]

I'm not suggesting that just because Fairy's Tale and MaOCT exist that Justin shouldn't go ahead with this game -- just the opposite, in fact. I'm pointing out that, because some current games already touch on similar themes, there's clearly an audience for your game.

So if you're going to not take something about my mention of Fairy's Tale "seriously," I'd say it should be the inferred idea that you should do something else, because you shouldn't. But by all means, take seriously the fact that Fairy's Tale exists, and the notion that it might benefit you to see what games are already out there that share some commonalities with yours.

[Justin Smith]

I'm designing a contest game. I wouln't even conscider abandoning a contest game for similarities to an existing product. I didn't take you to mean that I should abandon or alter the current project at all.
Unfortunately, I cannot acquire copies of Faery's Tale nor Monsters and Other Childish Things before the deadline. If I decide to pursue this project beyond this contest, I will take a look at similar products to see how they handled any challenges I may have faced in the design.

[George Austin]

Slightly off-topic: Faery's Tale is the name of the game Mike Olson first brought up. You might have trouble finding it spelling it with an "I." That first link was to the author/designer/developer's web site; here's a link to Green Ronin's (the publisher's)Faery's Tale Deluxe product page.

[Mike Olson]

Right -- thanks for clarifying that, George.

[Ron Stanley]

I love that picture of the fairy with the button shield and the mouse friend on the Faery's Tale home page. Anybody ever read the series The Borrowers? (I never did, but my ex-wife loved it when she was a kid.) That might make a great RPG... little people trying to survive on the leavings of big people.