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One of the tritest interpretations of fae/fey is the "made of stories" cliché, which you see in RPG settings like Exalted, Changeling: The Lost, and Keith Baker's articles on Eberron's Thelanis in his website.
Here we have an example:
http://keith-baker.com/dragonmarks-thelanis-and-the-fey/
I can see this concept being interesting as background lore, or as a gimmick in a novel, a movie, or a television series, but how can it effectively be used as in-game flavor in an RPG?
The storytelling in an RPG is completely different from other kinds of storytelling, because you have multiple storytellers: the GM, the players, and even the setting, rules, and dice. All of these are simultaneously telling a story together "on the spot," in real time. Much like in the real world.
So, from an RPG standpoint, how do you make these different from any other world and NPCs? "This fey knight is the narrative archetype of the 'gallant yet foolhardy and arrogant rival,' and will always act within that nature because that is their role in their story" is hardly any different from "This human knight NPC is supposed to be the 'gallant yet foolhardy and arrogant rival,' and will almost always act within that nature because that is their role in the campaign"?
If anything, this just makes the former a one-dimensional cardboard cutout able to act only within their stock archetype, while the latter can be three-dimensional and grow out of it, right? And if you say that the former can be three-dimensional and grow and develop, because good stories have three-dimensional characters and character development, then how does that make the fey knight any different from regular people at all?
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>>52009089
Who cares? It's a game. The fey can be whatever.
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>>52009089
>but how can it effectively be used as in-game flavor in an RPG
Meta-storytelling. Think Waiting for Godot, or Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
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>>52009089
>If anything, this just makes the former a one-dimensional cardboard cutout able to act only within their stock archetype, while the latter can be three-dimensional and grow out of it, right?
Well, that's pretty much what you're going for with such a character, isn't it? A fairy is a soulless thing which lacks some vital component of what makes a human a real person. They can't escape their role.
Draw attention to this by having fairies who are stuck in inappropriate roles continue trying to act them out or repeat the same pattern of behaviour over and over again. Make their narrative role more narrow than 'gallant yet foolhardy rival'. Have them follow the same story arc over and over. Have stories from a hundred years ago which have them following the same pattern. Make them follow ridiculous genre conventions like explaining their plan to their captives and putting them in elaborate but very escapeable death traps.
Alternatively, make them self-aware. Have them comment on their narrative role and explicitly mention what part they are playing in the plot.
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>>52009512
>Make their narrative role more narrow than 'gallant yet foolhardy rival'. Have them follow the same story arc over and over. Have stories from a hundred years ago which have them following the same pattern. Make them follow ridiculous genre conventions like explaining their plan to their captives and putting them in elaborate but very escapeable death traps.
How would this come off as different from a GM simply presenting one-dimensional, cardboard cutout NPCs?
>Alternatively, make them self-aware. Have them comment on their narrative role and explicitly mention what part they are playing in the plot.
Would this not be tantamount to one of those fantasy-parody light novels from the 2010s, or a live-action comedy sketch?
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>>52009609
>How would this come off as different from a GM simply presenting one-dimensional, cardboard cutout NPCs?
By highlighting exactly how one dimensional they are and establishing that they physically can't break out of their roles. To be effective, it would require the people around them to not be one dimensional as a point of comparison. Perhaps a band of warriors that includes the fey knight suffers a crushing failure, and while the others fall, learn, adapt, and grow, the knight does not. Maybe he can't learn, and simply continues as he always did. Or maybe he CAN learn, but remains unable to break out of the role. His character might change and grow, but his actions can't. He is humbled and broken, with the experience of centuries behind him, but there must always be an arrogant fool, and he goes making the same mistakes again and again.
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>>52009609
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was from 1966, you pleb.
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>>52011201
>or a live-action comedy sketch
No date given.
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>>52011314
>Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern is comedy
Although, all postmodernism is fucking hilarious, so I guess you get a pass on that statement.
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>>52009089
In my game they have two "titles" per "level" that embodies their powers and restriction, for instance "the one whose sword is like the wind" would his restriction as "the one who cannot hold back his ambitions", meaning that he has power when wielding his sword with grace, but if he goes against his "titles" he will lose some of it.
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