The Campaign Builder's Guild

Hansel and Gretl.  Lost in the woods, starving, cold and just ahead of a storm and the PCs come across what might be a deserted house...no, there is smoke coming out of the chimney.  "I'll bet we can ride out the storm here."  Night Hag, anyone?

Little Red Riding Hood.  Got to get a load of silver weapons to the next village, and help them deal with the werewolf attacks!

There is a certain air of menace around many fairy tales, but don't work for your average game plot, normally.  Beauty and the Beast,  Bluebeard's Castle, The Ugly Duckling, etc..

What else works, and why?  I want to assemble a fairy tale inspired campaign but before I go off to my local bookstore and search a few titles, I thought I'd drop this on the boards to see what sticks.

Any communal wisdom would be appreciated.  I ask that you explain your reasonings too.  Thanks in advance.  



 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs immediately comes to mind. Who wouldn't want to take the place of the prince and help the dwarves defeat the witch, and save Snow White?

Sleeping Beauty should too, though it's been years since I've seen the fairytale so I don't know what exactly happens.

Secret of NIMH? Awakened rats and mice in a miniature world of magic? Yes please!

Secret of NIMH... hmmm.  Good one.

Many fairy tales don't work because of the nature of the conflict; it would be difficult to replace the protagonists of those stories with the players and have it work like a game. Such events could go on as the background for a plot, though. For example, I've used "Beauty and the Beast" before: The town's mayor seeks out the heroes, saying that an orc chieftain has kidnapped his daughter, offering a reward to bring her back (even if they only bring back word that she died). The party tracked down the orcs and stormed their camp; when they faced the chief, they defeated him and were about to deliver the finishing blow when the mayor's daughter stopped them, revealing that she had run away willingly and staged the kidnap to make it look natural.

The party had a half-orc amongst them (a product of rape, though), so this ended up being a good awakening for the group. The half-orc had faced much stigma due to his heritage, and the party had to prove he wasn't evil on several occasions. I found it interesting that the thought hadn't crossed their mind that full orcs could make the same change.

So the party heeded the mayor's daughter's request, taking her signet ring back to the town and telling the mayor that she had died but they avenged her by killing the tribe of orcs. The orc tribe left the area, so peace would be had.

All in all, it was an interesting side quest. It could have turned out cliche, but since I had disguised it as a cliche "kill the monster, save the girl" adventure, the players weren't thinking outside of the box. It taught the characters a good lesson, especially the half-orc character.

Fairy tales, like epics, work great for inspiration because they are basic stories which speak to our basic thoughts and desires as humans. The main issue is that you have to disguise the inspiration enough so the players don't figure it out too quickly.

And you are correct; the original versions of many fairy tales, especially the ones collected by the Brothers Grim, are very malevolent.

Hmm, maybe I should do something to that extent Kap'n Xeviat - once I start running a campaign that is. I like to keep my players on their toes. :)

Slapzilla, I don't know if this is something you could use, but movies like Shrek (which is basically a fairy tale - the medium through which it is told has just "grown up"). And I suppose there are other movies out there, though they escape my mind at the moment.

Xeviat, your particular orc adventure makes me think much more of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust than Beauty and the Beast.  Sounds really cool!

And "Bloodlust" made me think of Beauty and the Beast; lol.

there are students of Literature, cynical students, who like to say there are only so many stories and everything is just variations on those.

Beauty and the Beast's moral was "ugliness on the outside does not mean ugliness on the inside", or something like that. It is a French fairy tale, written by the aristocracy for others in the aristocracy, in a time when arranged marriages were common. A young noble lady may be married to an ugly older man, so this story was meant to teach them to look for inner beauty. At least this is what I learned in mythology class, when we studied fairy tales.

The Disney version, though, had a really negative moral in my opinion: Love him no matter what, even if he's a monster. This is colored by my mother's abuse at the hands of my step-father ... but yeah ...

Rumpelstiltskin could also be good inspiration (that story's always horrified me in a way; the idea of having to do something impossible or lose something you cherish overloads my logical mind). The party would come to the aid of a family that's made a deal with a devil or a fey, and the party has to seek out information needed to invalidate the contract. You can get away from Rumpelstiltskin fast, but a quest to find an Outsider's name could spark an interesting adventure, one with a time-limit for good measure.

Quote from: Kap'n XeviatMany fairy tales don't work because of the nature of the conflict; it would be difficult to replace the protagonists of those stories with the players and have it work like a game.

True enough.  I've been doing a bit of research and there are many that just wouldn't work as game plots, but as background would be awesome.  The PCs as the agents of change or even as the threat implicit in the Grimm tales could work out.

As for alternative mediums, a few years back I first really understood the metaphoric process in a story while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Mining the Grimms, Mother Goose, popular movies, heck-even Buffy for the themes that get the metaphor, then translating them into plots....  Happens in anime all the time....  Just thinking out loud.

Creating archetypes and giving them the old Joseph Campbell treatment.  A better caliber of game to be sure, but where to begin.  I've got a Hansel and Gretl situation worked out basically but there is no tension beyond a simple dungeon.  What's the theme there?  Maturity?  Yeesh.  How does that translate into a monster?  Hmm, much to be done.

Thanks to all so far, keep 'em coming.    

[blockquote=the good Captain]Many fairy tales don't work because of the nature of the conflict; it would be difficult to replace the protagonists of those stories with the players and have it work like a game. Such events could go on as the background for a plot, though. For example, I've used "Beauty and the Beast" before: The town's mayor seeks out the heroes, saying that an orc chieftain has kidnapped his daughter, offering a reward to bring her back (even if they only bring back word that she died). The party tracked down the orcs and stormed their camp; when they faced the chief, they defeated him and were about to deliver the finishing blow when the mayor's daughter stopped them, revealing that she had run away willingly and staged the kidnap to make it look natural.

The party had a half-orc amongst them (a product of rape, though), so this ended up being a good awakening for the group. The half-orc had faced much stigma due to his heritage, and the party had to prove he wasn't evil on several occasions. I found it interesting that the thought hadn't crossed their mind that full orcs could make the same change.[/blockquote]

I just had to give this a big bump.  This is a great adventure, and it works on many levels.  This is what gaming can be, challenging on many levels.  Good Stuff!!!
(and my Acculturated Orcash thank you).

The Snow Queen: The players have to escort Gerti on her mission to rescue Kay. There's even an excuse for persistent repeated minion encounters in the form of the Snow Queen's "Snow Bees". The presence of PCs would sort of hurts the purity=power theme, but having Gerti act as savior to Kay in the Snow Queen's palace could be retained. While she does that the party can face off against the Snow Queen herself.

Maybe using these stats... http://projectdf.phpbbnow.com/viewtopic.php?t=276&start=95 Though they're more movie-based while I was thinking of the printed fairy tale.

A very interesting take, thanks.