Fair Folk

P

Persell

Ten Thousand Club
I am running a series in which the main antagonists will be Raksha, so could you please give me advice on how to run them? Any advice will do, including 'don't.'
 
I won't say "don't", but I will say, "don't use the Fair Folk book".


When I run <strike>Fair Folk</strike> Raksha (as NPCs), I usually just make shit up. The FF are kind of random and unpredictable by nature, so I just let them be capable of doing whatever I need them to be capable of, and then assign an appropriate dice pool.
 
Agreed, the Fair Folk book tried, unsuccessfully, to straddle the line between "Rules for Everything" and "No Rules at All", and ends up being hopelessly confusing. Not in the 'cool, the Fair Folk book has be confused' way, just the 'What the fuck?' way.


I say bear only a few important things in mind for flavour and run with them:


-They are completely self-serving, although they can offer the illusion of compassion or self-restraint if it suits/amuses them, and may do so to such a degree that it differs only in intent; they might never truly do evil things.


-They are obviously terrified of Iron.


-They cannot break an oath.


-They cannot create new things, only ape the dreams of mortals, although this has more to do with their 'musing' than their plots, because functionally they are fully intelligent and thoughtful.


-Not all of them are 'bad guys', and a small number live among Mortals openly, even caring for them to a degree.


For inspiration, I say read Norse and Irish myth and legends, from which they were derived anyway. They were called the Sidh or the Wee/Fair Folk in Irish myth, not sure about Norse.


They have some cunning in the Irish ones, and often came across as catalysts rather than architects of disaster. In one example, one gave a king of Ireland a magical item to do with as he pleased, and the item of course led to troubles. The greatest Irish myth, Cuchullain, features Cuchullain sharing a dalliance with the queen of the Sidh, and I recall some other involvement there. In some variants, he was even half-Sidh.


Incidentally, Cuchullain fits the bill for a Dawn caste perfectly, down to the anima and everything.
 
I'm of the opinion that the Fair Folk book was one of the better splats content/concept wise (though certainly not writing wise). Unfortunately, what the book is really all about is dealing with entirely Fair Folk stories. It is a pretty neat system for dealing with campaigns where sets of Fair Folk characters scheme in the wyld against other Fair Folk. Contrary to initial impressions, the systems in the book are actually pretty good, even logical (once you make a slight switch in mind set). The lack of examples, however, makes it brutal reading.


This is all wasted, of course, because the reason most people bought the book was to include Fair Folk in Creation-based stories, often as antagonists. And at this, the book is almost useless.


I'm presently running my campaign in the deep wyld, journeying through an Unshaped. It's been educational.


My advice is to decide how much time you want to invest in the mechanics of your raksha opposition. You have two choices really: 1) wing it, using just the stuff in the core book to guess what they can do. For most campaigns, this will be good enough. 2) wing it, using as much of the Fair Folk book as possible. This is what I did, and is better suited if your circle intends to take the fight to the raksha in the wyld, rather than vice-versa.


I could go on at length here, but I'll refrain. If you have specific questions, I'll try to answer them. Meantime, some things to consider:

  • The wyld book will be out in a little while. It may make some of this easier, but I wouldn't count on it.
  • In an earlier thread, I gave a walk through of how Fair Folk feed, which you should probably read.
  • In the third post of this thread, I link to an excellent article about the motivations of raksha.
  • If you are playing First Edition, lack of persistent defense means that even powerful raksha really just aren't that threatening as opposition to experienced solars. In my campaign, I had the "boss raksha" surrounded by guards who knew Falling Petal Style (2E version here). Essentially, it allows a noble to use sacrificial guards as persistent defense, sort of.
  • If you want to dive into the 1E Fair Folk book and want to build Creation-based raksha, read this and this.
  • Some of the links on the wiki's Fair Folk page are also useful. Some of the characters people have posted are fairly decent as well.
  • You might find the NPCs and behemoths I used in my campaign useful. Note, however, that a good proportion of the raksha listed there are guiding intelligences of an Unshaped, and follow much different creation rules (in particular, they can't take mutations, which makes them less effective against Creation).
 
As said before, I only ever used to my own whim and not that goddamned book. The only part of that book worth reading and learning would be the Mountain Folk. NOW there's some entertainment.
 
I also like the Mountain Folk.  There is a lot of good stuff in their section that can make for some great plot devices.
 
Here.


Free NPC for ya.


I use him when I need a bad ass.


_____________


Fair Folk War Noble-


4 Arms, Demon Wings, 3 Eyes, Huge, Inexhaustable, Resilient


Attributes:


Strength 12, Dexterity 5, Stamina 13,


Charisma 3, Manipulation 7, Appearance 3,


Perception 6, Intelligence 4, Wits 6


Abilities:


Archery 7, Athletics 4, Awareness 7, Bureaucracy 4, Craft (Glamour) 6, Dodge 8, Endurance 5, Investigation 10, Larceny 5, Linguistics 5 (Lapis Court, Old Ream, High Realm, High Holy Speech, Seatongue, Firetongue), Lore 8, Martial Arts 8, Medicine 4, Melee 6, Performance 7, Occult 10, Presence 7, Resistance 8, Ride 9, Sail 4, Socialize 5, Stealth 3, Survival 8, Thrown 5


Virtues:


Compassion (Cup - Minor) 2, Conviction (Staff - Minor) 4, Temperance (Ring - Major) 4, Valor (Sword - Major) 5, Heart 4


Dodge: 13 Soak: 29B/ 33L/ 26A (includes Armor)


Willpower: 7 Health Levels: -0 x23/ -2/ Incapacitated


Essence: 5 Essence Pool: 50


Sword: Speed 19, Accuracy 16, Damage + 23L, Defense 12


Gossamer Superheavy Plate: +16B/ +20L


Charms:


Hundred Hand Style- Multi Actions reduced by 1


Millipede Mind- Multi Actions reduced by 2


Grace of the Infinately Revolving Spheres- First 5 Actions are without penalty


Racing Dragon's Speed x2


All other Charms I feel like.


Retinue of 3


Command of 5


Style of 5


Command:


Total of 4000 Troops


Giant Mosquitos (800)


Giant Winged Spiders (800)


Draglings (400)


Flying Artillery (100)


Total Air Troops (2100)


Hobgoblins (800)


Fae Beasts - assorted (400)


Fire Giants (200)


Buck Ogres (200)


Fae Nobles as Commanders and Subcommanders of each section (100)


Various Land Artillery (200)


Total Land Troops (1900)
 
One last bit of advice. Any First Edition raksha based around Grace of the Infinitely Revolving Spheres (like Ker'ion's and many others... it's a great mutation) get totally owned by the use of a relatively innocuous charm from the Ebon Shadow Style called Distracting Finger-Gesture Attack. Hordes generally make better opposition.
 
one other thing: can you help me with the name? (fire type, gender unclear, luminary caste) also, where can I find stats for faerie weaponry/armour?
 
Forgot his mount:


Cereberus-


Attributes:


Strength 13, Dexterity 5, Stamina 15


Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 4


Perception 4, Intelligence 3, Wits 3


Abilities:


Athletics 6, Awareness 8, Brawl 6, Dodge 5, Linguistics 2 (Old Realm, Firetongue, Lapis Court), Presence 4, Stealth 5, Survival 4


Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 5, Temperance 2, Valor 5


Powers: Horrific Visage (Must make a Valor roll, difficulty 2 or take a -2 to all Battle rolls involoving the Cerberus), Resist Command, No Familiar


Perfected Essence Sight (can see all Essence flows within 4 miles)


Sight of Vision Concealment (negates 4 dice of stealth due to invisibility, even through Anima or Essence effects)


Sight of Vitality (can discern whether a creature is alive, dead, wounded, or diseased)


Fire Breath (5 motes), Immune to Fire,


Inexhaustable, Giant, Tough


Base Initiative: 8


Attacks:


Bite: Speed 10, Accuracy 12, Damage 21L, Defense 10


Claw: Speed 12, Accuracy 14, Damage 18L, Defense 14


Dodge: 10 Soak: 27L 27B (Hell Hide 12L / 12B)


Willpower: 10 Health Levels: -0 x3/-1 x4 -2 x5 -4/ Incapacitated


Essence: 4 Essence Pool: 40
 
Duma said:
one other thing: can you help me with the name? (fire type, gender unclear, luminary caste) also, where can I find stats for faerie weaponry/armour?
Click to expand...
From the Fair Folk book, pg 181: "Gossamer weapons add +1 to accuracy, damage and defense and +2 to their rate. They also subtract one dot from their Strength minimum. Gossamer armor has neither fatigue nor mobility penalty."
 
Hey, I'm a newb here as you can no doubt tell, but I've been an avid fan of Exalted and been playing it since it came out.  Having ran a few games, I tend to agree that the Raksha book is a brutal read, especially if you just want a Raksha antagonist.  But I found if you take some of their 'charms/mutations' and the ideas behind them, you can make for some impressive bad guys.


 One thing I kept tossing at the players were 'illusions'.  Tell the players what they're seeing as if it wasn't an illusion (i.e. big battle scene in the middle of a city), but take note prior to who has exactly enough attributes you feel appropriate to see through said illusion...  (willpower and essence combined are a good place to start).  That player (or players) are the only ones in the group who see it for what it really is, if any of them actually do.  I.E. a behemoth smashes through a building sending debris everywhere, but there's no actual damage to the building to those who 'really' see what's going on.


 Another thing, is to toss illusions at the group with none of them seeing through them.  An example being a huge group of adversaries to slow down the group persuing said antagonist.  After several rounds of 'combat', the same felled opponents are fighting them again (while the originals are still on the ground).  Or apply no actual damage to the players, just 'phantom' pain they think they're suffering from.  For example, player takes a wound for however much, but finds out next combat round that he's not bleeding (or even injured at all).  


 Of course, things like cold-iron weapons or talismans can make for important elements to the story.  Such as contact to Cold Iron completely dispels the illusions.  Or even renders the character completely immune to percieving the illusions so long as it's contacting their bare skin.  But these items are naturally important against Raksha, anyways.


  Just don't overuse them or else they'll start questioning whether every villager really exists.  Not to mention the Raksha may become quite predictable, which is something I've never thought they really should be...
 
Thanks!  And FLCL is awsome!  I would have gone for TV-boy, but didn't see him...  I'll just have to find a suitable pic to use. :D
 
wordman said:
I'm of the opinion that the Fair Folk book was one of the better splats content/concept wise (though certainly not writing wise). Unfortunately, what the book is really all about is dealing with entirely Fair Folk stories. It is a pretty neat system for dealing with campaigns where sets of Fair Folk characters scheme in the wyld against other Fair Folk. Contrary to initial impressions, the systems in the book are actually pretty good, even logical (once you make a slight switch in mind set). The lack of examples, however, makes it brutal reading.
This is all wasted, of course, because the reason most people bought the book was to include Fair Folk in Creation-based stories, often as antagonists. And at this, the book is almost useless.


I'm presently running my campaign in the deep wyld, journeying through an Unshaped. It's been educational.


My advice is to decide how much time you want to invest in the mechanics of your raksha opposition. You have two choices really: 1) wing it, using just the stuff in the core book to guess what they can do. For most campaigns, this will be good enough. 2) wing it, using as much of the Fair Folk book as possible. This is what I did, and is better suited if your circle intends to take the fight to the raksha in the wyld, rather than vice-versa.


I could go on at length here, but I'll refrain. If you have specific questions, I'll try to answer them. Meantime, some things to consider:

  • The wyld book will be out in a little while. It may make some of this easier, but I wouldn't count on it.
  • In an earlier thread, I gave a walk through of how Fair Folk feed, which you should probably read.
  • In the third post of this thread, I link to an excellent article about the motivations of raksha.
  • If you are playing First Edition, lack of persistent defense means that even powerful raksha really just aren't that threatening as opposition to experienced solars. In my campaign, I had the "boss raksha" surrounded by guards who knew Falling Petal Style (2E version here). Essentially, it allows a noble to use sacrificial guards as persistent defense, sort of.
  • If you want to dive into the 1E Fair Folk book and want to build Creation-based raksha, read this and this.
  • Some of the links on the wiki's Fair Folk page are also useful. Some of the characters people have posted are fairly decent as well.
  • You might find the NPCs and behemoths I used in my campaign useful. Note, however, that a good proportion of the raksha listed there are guiding intelligences of an Unshaped, and follow much different creation rules (in particular, they can't take mutations, which makes them less effective against Creation).
Click to expand...
I like the unshaped city of yours, and might... borrow ideas for one of my games...   :D
 
so, could you help me to come up with a good name for this raksha (as I said, fire type, luminary, gender uncertain) personally, I'm thinking Loki.
 
Duma said:
so, could you help me to come up with a good name for this raksha (as I said, fire type, luminary, gender uncertain) personally, I'm thinking Loki.
Click to expand...
What does he do? How does he behave? This things will have an effect on his name.
 
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