I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for almost 25 years. In that time I have seen many supplements and adventures. If I had to choose my favorite then without a doubt it would be Tall Tales of the Wee Folk. This supplement was the first of four designed to allow players to select monsters as player characters. Tall Tales of the Wee Folk details various woodland creatures and fairies. The second instalment was Top Ballista, which takes place on the flying city of Serraine. The Sea People covers life under the waves as a sea elf, merman, or triton. Finally, the Night Howlers supplement allowed players to be were-creatures.
The format of each supplement was very similar. It came with two booklets: the first was a DM’s book that covered the races, new spells and magic items, and background material. The second book was an adventure book and contained rules for using the material with AD&D second edition. I personally liked this format and I don’t know why TSR didn’t create more supplements like this.
To start, I’d like to begin with the outer folder of the product, a tri-fold cover. The outside has a map of the Dreamlands, which is located in the Known World’s campaign setting. The inside contains various tables referencing level advancement, encumbrance rules, racial minimums/maximums, and more so the outer folder makes a nice game master screen. The cover art was done by Keith Parkinson and has two adventurers riding what appear to be wolves. It doesn’t really fit with the content of the book, but it is a nice picture. The interior art does a much better job of conveying the mood and feel of the supplement.
Next we get to the DM’s book where we meet several personalities from the fairy kingdom. They are King Oberon, Robin Goodfellow, Lotis (a dryad), and Olyrrhoe (a centaur and daughter of the mythical Chiron). These four characters act as our tour guides and give an introductory narration for each of the races covered in the book. The prose is well written, though on a couple occasions the speaker breaks the fourth wall and talks game mechanics. For example, when Lotis gives the introduction to the section on treats she mentions they take an additional point of damage per die from fire based attacks! After the introduction we get into the game mechanics. The book is well illustrated by Valerie Valusek. Her work sets the mood perfectly and reminds me of Larry Elmore in terms of style.
In addition to covering the character races the DM’s book crams a lot of information into its 64 pages. There are sections covering new spells and magic items, major NPCs of the fairy realm, how to run woodland NPCs, and much background information on the world of the Fey Folk.
Before covering the player options it should be noted that since this supplement was written using the original D&D ruleset most creatures do not have the option for classes, much like an elf in basic D&D was essentially a fighter/mage while dwarves and halflings were basically fighters. Tall Tales of the Wee Folk does give the DM option though of allowing some woodland beings of becoming a shaman or wicca (cleric and magic-user respectively) by paying extra experience points. Fairies have their own spell lists, though not all fairies can use magic.
Another unusual aspect of creature characters is that they don’t begin at level 1 like the other D&D characters. Most start out with negative experience points and need to go through one or two levels before they reach the level of normal monster. This level puts them on the same level (or a little better than) their kin as covered in the D&D Dungeon Master’s book. After that they reach level 1 and start advancing like a normal character. This is done to put newly created woodland and fairy characters on the same level as standard D&D characters.
The section on woodland beings starts with the centaur. They are essentially fighters, but they have the option of becoming a shaman or wicca. Dryads retain their ability to charm, but they do not gain this ability until they reach normal monster level. As a dryad advances she gains the ability use druid spells and shapechange into plants. The faun, in my opinion, is probably the most underpowered of the woodland beings. They only use the d4 for hit points and don’t gain their special ability until 5th level. At that point they can use musical instruments to amplify an emotion in a target. They have the ability to become shaman.
Next are the Hsiao. These beings are a race of halfling-sized owls that gain clerical spells. They can use any non-weapon/non-armor magic item permitted to clerics as long as they can find a way to physically use it. The next race, the treant, is pretty much what you would expect from a walking tree. They gain a better natural armor class and damage with their powerful limbs and at normal monster level they can animate trees. At 10th level they gain the ability to brew magic potions. I personally feel they are better suited as NPCs. Their advancement is quite slow and their nature makes them ill-suited to any adventure outside of a forest. They can become shaman.
Finally, there are the wood imps. According to the introductory text they were once fairies but became corrupted by evil. Wood imps appear as tiny humans about two feet tall. They can become shaman, but can only advance to the 4th level of ability. Their main advantage is surprising others in the forest and the ability to use giant spiders as mounts (including using the spider’s venom to poison his arrows).
The next section of the book moves on to the fairy folk. An ability all fairies have is invisibility to mortals. Some fairies have this from the start but others don’t gain it until later levels. One interesting aspect of fairykind is the fact that some fey beings have a chance to fail when using certain magic items. As the fairy gains levels the chance of successfully using magic items improves, but there is also a chance that the item will backfire or produce an unexpected result similar to a wand of wonder. The guidelines for unexpected results are very simple. The game master rolls a d6 to determine if the result is helpful or harmful to the fairy. It is also possible for the item to produce a result that is neither good nor bad. Rather than have the player roll on a table the DM is allowed to come up with the result. For example, an unexpected result with a wand of fireballs might make the fairy temporarily immune to fire, cause him to take a few points of fire damage, or turn his clothes red.
The first of the fairies to be covered are the browines. These beings usually serve as household helpers or guardians of treasure. They are essentially fighters, though they can only use small weapons and wear armor fitted to their size. Leprechauns are similar to brownies, but they are smaller, have fewer hit points, and can use magic. They are the smiths and craftsmen of the fairy world, and as a result they gain some spells at lower levels than their kin. One interesting aspect of the leprechaun’s invisibility to mortals ability is if he is seen by a mortal he cannot become invisible to that person until he looks away.
The next two beings, pixies and sprites, are covered under the same entry. The main difference is pixies are warriors and sprites are primarily spell casters. Pixies have the advantage of being able to remain invisible to mortals while attacking. Sprites cannot use armor and are limited to one handed weapons but can become powerful spellcasters.
Next we have the pooka. These fey folk have no set shape and can appear as normal animals or bipedal versions of normal animals. They have an interesting range of special abilities. A pooka can induce nightmares and change their shape at higher levels. Their invisibility to mortals ability is unique in that a pooka can choose to have himself invisible to some people but fully visible to others. Pooka also gain the ability to manipulate time. At lower levels they can age inanimate objects and as the pooka gains levels he can cast haste on himself or another, slow enemies, speed natural healing, dodge attacks by stepping out of the time stream for a second, and even stop time entirely. A word of warning from personal experience: if you have a player who specializes in playing annoying characters you might not want to let him be a pooka!
The next race, the sidhe, is similar in appearance to a human or elf. Not only can a sidhe turn invisible to mortals but he can also breathe water. However, iron is toxic to them and they cannot use weapons, armor, or tools with ferrous metal. Unlike other fey races the sidhe may choose to be a fighter or a thief. Sidhe of either class gain fairy spells, though not as many as sprites.
Finally, there are the woodrakes. These beings are shape shifters and have three forms. Their natural form is a man-sized dragon similar to a wyvern but without the stinger. A woodrake can also change into an elf or halfling. Additionally, they gain limited spell immunity and thieving abilities. An interesting aspect of the woodrake is that the race is tied to the legendary city of Blackmoor and its destruction. After the Great Rain of Fire a group of fairies decided to integrate themselves into human and demi-human cultures to make sure the Blackmoor Cataclysm doesn’t repeat itself. They became the woodrakes (to monitor elves and halflings), the mandrakes (to monitor humans), and the cold drakes (to monitor dwarves and gnomes).
Fey spell casters have their own spell list which is a combination of magic-user, cleric, druid, and new spells. Most of their spells are what you would expect from a race of beings that enjoy practical jokes or are defensive in nature. They do gain a few offensive spells, including magic missile, call lightning, disintegrate, and creeping doom. Yes, creeping f’n doom! Imagine the look on a player’s face when he is facing a high level pixie and a huge horde of insects magically appears out of nowhere and advances upon him!
The second booklet, the Adventures Booklet, includes rules for converting woodland beings and fey folk into AD&D 2E characters and guidelines for running woodland adventures. It includes seven adventures. I like the assortment the booklet has to offer. Most of the scenarios are short and can easily be inserted into an existing campaign. Of these adventures only one is designed specifically for fairies and woodland beings. Of the remaining six adventures five of them are equally appropriate for woodland creatures, fairies, and the normal D&D classes.
But there is one adventure that stands out above the others called “The Lost Seneschal.” This scenario is a fully fleshed out adventure that can easily occupy an afternoon’s game session and is written for characters level 1-3. I have played through this adventure five times with five different groups, and each play through was unique.
In The Lost Seneschal the party is hired by the baron to find his missing tax collector (why anyone would want to rescue a tax collector is beyond me, but this is a fantasy game). This makes the adventure better suited towards standard characters as opposed to woodland beings and fairies. The thing I like about this adventure is the variety of the encounters. There are a total of seven, and only two require combat. One involves a group of bandits and the other involves an ogress. I did have one group though that completed the encounter with the ogress through roleplaying and cleverness as opposed to drawing swords and charging into battle.
Now that Wizards of the Coast is offering PDFs of Basic D&D products again I hope they will consider releasing not only Tall Tales of the Wee Folk but other entries in the Creature Crucible series as well. Tall Tales of the Wee Folk is a solid supplement that has a lot going for it, and if you are looking for a way to bring a fresh perspective to a Basic Dungeons & Dragons game or a retro clone based on old school D&D I highly recommended picking it up.
