Day of alakbar 1e module pdf download

Hullo, Gentle Readers. There is a LOT going on in this latest Question from a Denizen, which was submitted to me Anonymously. My secretive friend asks this. “Would be interested in hearing your opinion on portraying fey creatures. I’ve been trying to figure this out and have ended up stuck on 2 specific questions: How would one go about portraying different fey as an actual alien and otherworldly species? As a dm when portraying the individual fey I’m not sure what personality traits and behaviour characteristics to use. I don’t want them completely loopy and crazy but also don’t want then to feel like just an ordinary person either. Also in a game where there are a lot of fey how would you make each npc fey both unique but also still keep that otherworldly aspect. One problem, and this is true I think whenever you try to portray characters from a different race, is that all individuals in that race will potentially become cookie cutters. Each sharing the exact same traits and mannerisms. So how do you stop each npc from appearing to be no different while still keeping the mannerisms and behavior associated with them that gives them their otherworldly feeling?“

Whew! That is a lot to unpack, but I will do my best.

To tackle the second question first, I would treat your fey like any other NPCs you make that are not humans. No one should be a cookie cutter cardboard cut out, but, at the same time, there are certain traits that are common enough amongst the non-human races that you don’t want to jettison those entirely or else they might lose a little bit of what makes them seem like a member of that race. 

A dour halfling might be interesting, but you want them to be the exception, since the norm for halflings is rather happy go lucky and cheerful. Likewise, if all of your dwarves are open and friendly, one might wonder why they’re often portrayed as a bit on the suspicious side. You can make sure that you include those traits that the NPC’s people are known for, but then vary and give extra traits as well. For example, let’s say we need 5 halflings for a caravan. Halfling one might be the dour doomsayer mentioned above, and you might also make them the one who works with the animals and to have a penny whistle that they play beautiful, mournful tunes on. Halfling two might be everyone’s favorite cook, a cheerful fellow with bright green eyes and quick fingers. Halfling three might be the one with the most common sense in the group, the even keeled brewer who keeps everyone rooted with pithy sayings and solid advice. A fourth one might be a bit of a prankster, but also the first one to buy you a drink or to laugh when they themselves get pranked, as well as a fiddler of great skill. Number five is a bit parental, something of a mother hen, and to know all the best herbal remedies you can find in the woods. Each one is distinct, but you’d believe them all as halflings, I’m willing to bet.

Your first question is a bit of a challenge, but I do have some advice on how to portray an entity like an archfey. There are ways of making them otherworldly while still making them a believable entity.

Firstly, remember that they are likely immortal for all intents and purposes. Sure, they could be killed, but they are unlikely to simply die. This tends to skew their ability to comprehend the concept of haste. They are much more likely to move, think, and act more cimcumspectly than the PCs might like. If they are trying to get an eladrin lord to send troops to aid them against the orcs attacking their lands, it might be challenging to get them to commit quickly. They may want time to think about it or send the PCs on a quest to prove themselves worthy allies. After all, when you can legitimately retreat and defeat your enemy by outliving him and his whole family, it’s hard to get someone to understand the need for speed.

Also, most fey, especially archfey, are completely amoral by the standards of mortals. Appealing to their better nature is unlikely to work, as they may not have one. They may see nothing wrong with solving the problem of a rampaging group of satyrs by shunting them to the Prime Material Plane, so the PCs who are likely trying to get a Fey Queen to recall them are going to face an uphill battle.

One thing that might be useful is to assign any of your fey some kind of aspect that you can use as a guideline. For example, in my LARP, I play a powerful fey called the Gourmand who embodies the aspect of Gluttony. Whenever I roleplay him, I make him incredibly predatory…his hands twitch like spiders, his head rocks side to side like a cobra, and he hunches forward. I speak in a deep, gutteral voice, and, before anything I say, there’s a certain amount of licking and smacking of lips. He’s cruel and has no compunctions about bargaining with PCs to do something awful…in exchange for which he helps them get things they REALLY want. He’s pretty repulsive, but that’s part of the idea. I think it’s pretty obvious when I’m playing him that he’s like no one else and very inhuman.

Another thing that comes directly from this is that each of these qualities can be exploited by your players, or by you. Let me show you what I mean.

The immortality aspect also means that, things that happened long ago are likely very fresh in the fey’s mind. If your eladrin battled the drow long ago, the PCs are likely to be able to use this if the orcs they’re fighting have drow allies. Alternatively, you could have the fey remember an ancestor of one of the PCs that they either liked or hated and give them some personal RP based on that.

If the PCs know the archfey is immoral, they can dispense with trying to appeal to the goodness in them. They can, instead, show them what benefits the archfey is likely to gain, which is more likely to appeal to them.

And if the archfey is the embodiment of something, the PCs may be able to goad the archfey into doing something that aligns with their nature. If, for example, the enemy included some kind of monster that was unique, they might appeal to the Gourmand’s hunger to eat something that no one else has ever eaten. 

I hope this advice helps. Being convincingly alien is always an RP challenge, but it can definitely be worth the work. Let us know how it goes!

and

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Well, we’ve put together a whole lot of info for our Angel of Chaos campaign, and I want to start developing some structure. Before I do that, however, I have to create a tool that I find incredibly helpful for any D&D campaign. I need a calendar.

In our own world, humankind has been developing calendars for over 10,000 years. Our earliest efforts were often tied to the moon, as its regular movements were easily tracked and measured, even by ancient peoples. Even the current calendar we possess is over 400 years old, and it’s based on other calendars that are far older. It’s not strange to imagine, then, that a world with people who lives hundreds of years, like elves, or thousands of years, like dragons, people would have been tracking time.