Take the fairyland across the border of Lud-in-the-Mist or A Fall of Stardust. In between it and the "real world" there is a wall or barrier-- let's say an "Anti-Alien Protection Rampart" in official terminology. Instead of England on the real world side there's East Berlin and the GDR or some sutble Eastern Bloc stand-in. Drüben indeed,
While "Workers of the World, Unite Against the Faerie!" would be interesting enough, recasting the fairy presence with some Zone phenomena-like details out of Roadside Picnic and a bit of the seductiveness of the Festival from Singularity Sky: "Entertain us and we will give you want you want." Faerie should be weird and horrifying but also weird and wondrous--in a horrific way, naturally. Miracles, wonders, and abominations.
Of course, the authorities don't want anybody having interaction with the faerie, much less smuggling in their reality-warping, magical tech--and maybe they have a point. But if PCs did the smart thing they wouldn't be adventurers, would they?
Amen to that last line and how boring the game would be. I like the concept. I think the closest I've come to integrating a Faerie-type thing into my world was I wrote up a small traveling carnival that was populated by fey. If I recall correctly, the players didn't trust it so they wouldn't go near it. Plus, I think one of the players had a real life phobia of clowns. While there were no clowns to be found in the carnival, I didn't tell him otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThat is the trouble with traveling Carnivals. With the one I ran the other week, my players went into the Carnival grounds but were very reluctant to enter any tents.
ReplyDelete1) See Crowley's "Little, Big."
ReplyDelete2) See Pulver's GURPS Technomancer, in which the Trinity test returns magic to the world and decades later has conspiracy theorists claiming area 51 is where the US makes deals with the Unseelie folk.