Anyone who has known me a while knows of my abiding love of faerie stories and legend. Not the fluffy confections of modern cartoons and animation; for me the tales of the Faerie Realm were the equivalent of the Mythos stories of dread and terror from the 1920s. I love to see games encompassing different flavours of Faerie mythology and how they bring that to life at the table.
So it was an absolute pleasure to talk with Neil Byrne about his two very different Fae games, Fey Wanderer and Fey World. And a few other things besides, of course.
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Brent: Neil, thank you for taking the time to talk with me. For our readers not yet familiar with your work, please tell me a bit about yourself.
Neil: I am an Irishman, born in Dublin who has been playing ttrpgs for about eight years now after a twenty year gap. When not obsessing about ttprgs I teach maths and science in secondary school. For the past seven years however I have been writing and developing my own indie ttrpg Fey Earth. Fey Earth is a game set in an alternate 19th century Earth where all the creatures from folklore and fairytales are real and have always lived alongside humanity. What makes Fey Earth different from nearly all other ttrpgs is that I have tried to be as authentic and accurate in my depictions of the fey as possible. As a result I have done thousands of hours of research, studying and reading folklore from mostly western Europe. Over the time that I have been working on this project I have become extremely knowledgeable of European folklore relating to the fey. In the last six months I got an idea for a fun, rules light game that was also about the fey. While I love Fey Earth it is a very large ttrpg, easily comparable to DnD, Pathfinder or Vampire the Masquerade in terms of its size and I decided I wanted to make a simple, whimsical game you could read and be able to run a game of in 20 minutes and that is how I came up with the idea for Fey Wanderer.
B: What drew you into tabletop roleplaying games? What was your “origin story” in the hobby?
Neil: I was first introduced to ttrpgs when I was about 9 or 10 by my best friend. His cousins had shown him this really cool game where you got to be wizards and paladins and fight dragons in dungeons. This was a long, long time ago, back in the 90s! My friends and I played 2nd ed DnD for about 5 years till I was 15 when I stopped playing. I got back into ttrpgs in my mid 30s when I decided I wanted to find a new hobby to be better able to find an excuse to spend time with my friends despite our busy lives. The first game I started running when I returned to the hobby was called Titansgrave: Ashes of Valkana. This was a really fun cyberpunk game written by Wil Wheaton and his stepson using the Fantasy Age system that had just been published by Green Ronin. Wheaton had a short webseries on the Geek and Sundry Youtube channel in which he played through the adventure. This was before Critical Role, though Laura Bailey was one of his players. While I really enjoyed the world of Valkana the game unfortunately was missing a lot which is often the case with adventure modules and I found myself having to fill in the gaps as we played. There were promises of a follow up book but the company tried to screw over Wheaton and he ended up bring them to court and successfully winning his case. However around the time I was finishing up that campaign I got the idea for Fey Earth and the rest is history.
B: How and when did you catch the desire to design your first game? Was that gradual or did you shift straight away into designer mode?
Neil: One day the thought popped into my head “what would the world be like if the fey were real and had always lived alongside humanity openly?” That question just kept rolling around in my head until I had to start thinking about it properly and trying to find an answer and that was the inspiration for Fey Earth. When I first realised I had the idea for a potentially great ttrpg I initially was going to write it as a 5e supplement but I quickly realised that was not possible. There is so much from European folklore that was stolen by Gary Gygax with no attempt at all to be accurate, authentic or respectful and if I was going to create a world in which the Fey were real it was going to involve the same creatures that you seen the names of in DnD but they would be very different. So for that reason I decided I would have to use a system other than 5e. I was only familiar with 5e and Fantasy Age however at that point so I decided to make my own system. I probably could have looked at other systems to see if I could find one that fit, but I was very reluctant too because I felt I would still face the same problem of my kobolds being very different to other games’ kobolds because mine were based on what the original German stories describe. In terms of how quickly I became a designer it was pretty immediate as I was already a GM at that point and was used to creating my own game. When running my Titansgrave campaign I had to add a lot to the adventure because the module was missing a lot of information that was needed. So going from a GM writing my own content to becoming a game designer writing my own system did not actually feel like a huge leap. However the fact that I teach maths as my main job probably made the process a lot easier because number crunching and mechanics was not something that scared me.
B: You’re running Fey Wanderer at a con and I’m passing by your table. What do you tell me about the game to get me sitting and playing?
Neil: Do you like the fey? Would you like to be a fey in a game? Do you like fun, whimsical settings with very simple rules? Do you want to play a game with a magic system powered by your imagination (insert appropriate wavy hand gestures)
This is what I would actually say!!! What makes Fey Wanderer such a delightful system is that it uses such simple mechanics but is a fun and lighthearted game. I can explain the entire rules set to you in under five minutes and you can create a character from scratch in under 10 minutes. I feel that this is the greatest appeal for my game.
B: You describe Fey Wanderer as a “…rules light ttrpg for all ages…” on the Kickstarter page. Is it challenging to design a game that can satisfy a broad age range? How important is it to you to make games for younger players to enjoy?
Neil: I never actually intended to make a game that was suitable for all ages. What I was looking to do when I started writing Fey Wanderer was to create a whimsical game that was very simple. I wanted it to be a game that you could pick up when two of your friends have cancelled last minute. The rest of the group still wants to play cause it’s game night but you cannot play your weekly campaign so you need something else. What happened however was that in writing a game with very simple rules that was designed to be something you could pick you and have characters and an adventure ready to play in 20 minutes I had inadvertently created a game which had such simplistic rules that it was suitable for even young children to play. I didn’t actually even consider this until one of my playtesters told me he had run the game several times over a weekend with his young son who absolutely loved it. It was at that point I realised I had accidentally made a game that was great for everyone from children to adults who love some childlike fun. This is something I am really happy about now because I think ttrpgs can be amazing for children. I started a ttrpgs club in my school two years ago. It was to provide a space for the kids who did not have something they could interact with, while also tricking them into doing maths. But it has been great and I love the idea that I have created another game that can get kids of all ages playing ttrpgs.
B: With a game centered on the Fey, magic is obviously an integral aspect. What makes the magic system in Fey Wanderer unique and compelling?
Neil: Fey in all the stories are unbelievably powerful. To have immense magical power in your game you either have to write a very large, potentially complex magic system with hundreds of spells or a magic system which uses an open set of rules and does not have predefined magic. This is what I did for Fey Wanderer. It is an open magic system that relies on the player’s imagination. I did give it some structure as I felt that for the average gamer who is used to systems like DnD where you have a list of spells to pick from, having a system where you just think of spells on the spot could be overwhelming. So the magic in Fey Wanderer is divided into spheres of magic and words of power. Examples of spheres of magic would be earth, fire, illusion, fortune, life etc. Words of power include words like haste, break, merge, strengthen, break etc. When creating your character you pick which spheres of magic you want to have access to. Most people start with two or three. You also pick your words of power, usually two or three to begin. When you want to perform magic you say which word of power you want to use and with which sphere of magic. So you might decide to use flash with the sphere of fire to dazzle a unicorn to get past it for example. You also have points in your spheres of magic. The more points you have the greater the dice pool you roll to see if your spell succeeds. This creates a mechanically simple system in which your magic is limited purely by your imagination.
B: Fey Wanderer is connected to another of your projects, Fey Earth. Could you tell me about that game, and how they connect and inform one another?
Neil: As I said above, Fey Earth is my first and most beloved project. I have been working on it for about seven years now and hope to launch a kickstarter in 2024 to try to publish it. It is a game that I have spent hours working on, reading books on fairy tales, academic papers written by folklorists and trying to find as many detailed first hand accounts of folklore and fairytales from Europe. While I would love for Fey Earth to eventually include all regions of Earth when I first started writing it I had to focus on Europe. Both because I did not want to culturally appropriate from places I have no connection to but also because what sets Fey Earth apart from other games is the faithfulness and accuracy in the descriptions of the Fey. This meant I had to pick a region in which I had the most familiarity and knowledge of folklore and as an Irishman that was obviously Europe. However the extensive research I have been doing these past seven years meant that when I decided to start writing Fey Wanderer it came to me very easily and I had the basic outline of the game written in about four weeks because I have been working on a ttrpg centred around the fey for some many years. The biggest difference between Fey Earth and Fey Wanderer apart from the mechanics is that Fey Wanderer is set in the Fey Realm so you are facing challenges and obstacles that are all centred around fey and magic. Fey Earth however is set in an alternate 19th century Earth in which the industrial revolution is at its height and you can only play humans in that game as to play a fey would be to play a demi-god
B: How important was it for you to draw on the original folklore of the Fey? Do you find yourself influenced more by one tradition over another (Scots versus Irish versus Welsh, for instance)?
Neil: For Fey Wanderer I was less strict with myself. I feel that Fey Wanderer is influenced more by fairytales than by folklore and that makes a considerable difference in how you describe your fey creatures and how they behave. This however also added more whimsy to the game which was what I was trying to create. In Fey Earth original folklore is the bedrock of the game. I have tried to use folklore from as many parts of western Europe as I can in Fey Earth instead of focusing on one or two regions and cultures. This however made things more difficult for me. It was not until I started doing my research that I discovered just how little folklore has survived in most of Europe. Unlike Ireland, which has some of the richest and most well preserved folklore in Europe if not the world, most of the folklore across mainland Europe was lost. If it were not for individuals such as the Grimm brothers in Germany, Italo Calvino in Italy or Madame D’Aulnoy in France then the only parts of Europe which would still have any folklore at all would be the nordic countries and the celtic countries. And even with those individuals the stories they preserved were more fairytales and not folklore. However I feel that with games like Fey Earth and to a lesser extent Fey Wanderer we can better preserve these tales.
B: You are funding Fey Wanderer through Kickstarter. Can you talk a bit about that process for readers considering their own crowdfunding?
Neil: This is my second time using kickstarter. I attempted a kickstarter for Fey Earth last year which failed to reach its funding goals. While that was very disappointing I learned a lot. Most people apparently fail in their first attempt at a kickstarter as they are very hard and require a lot more work than you would think. For Fey Wanderer however I was confident I would reach my funding target. Firstly it was a much smaller goal of only €400. The purpose of this kickstarter was purely to raise the money to pay my artist to do the artwork for the game. Also this kickstarter is for a purely digital game. I never intended to print Fey Wanderer and I probably never will. This made things much easier as I did not have to worry about printing costs or the even bigger hurdle of distribution. If you are considering crowdfunding through kickstarter one of the first things you must consider is whether to go purely digital or also physical? If you are going to have a physical product how long will it take to be made and how will you distribute it? Distribution is a huge part of any kickstarter, especially as covid has greatly increased shipping costs which are still very high over a year after covid was officially declared to be “over”. Also remember that there are fees included. Kickstarter takes about 5% and backerkit also takes about 5% so whatever your funding goal is add at least 10% on to that number to factor in your fees. These were all the things I had to consider when I was creating this kickstarter.
B: What other games grab your attention these days? What are you drawn to as a designer and as a player/GM?
Neil: There are so many games. But as the forever GM I never get to play. And as someone designing his own game, running a weekly actual play livestream which is also realised as a podcast and who is still getting ideas for other games I want to create I never have time to play anything. However there are a few that I really hope to play in the next year. I recently got a copy of the Dead Letter Society by the wonderful Rori Montford and I will be starting to play this with one of the players in my Fey Earth stream, by good friend Niamh who plays the party witch Gwynn. This is an epistolary and journaling GM-less game in which you and another player are vampires who have started writing correspondence to each other. I really want to play the horror RPG Shiver by the incredible Parable Games. This is an amazing game which has designed its mechanics so you feel like a character trying to survive a horror movie. I also can’t wait to try out Witches of Midnight by Balsamic Games which just completed their kickstarter and All the Witches which also had a really successful kickstarter. So I guess you could say I have a theme. For all of these games I would be happy to be the GM, but I’d love a chance to be a player at some point
B: It may be too soon to ask with the Fey Wanderer Kickstarter wrapping up soon, but any future projects coming up for you? Anything you can tease or talk about?
Neil: The next big project I will be preparing for is the Fey Earth kickstarter 2.0. I intend to have a preview page on kickstarter by September with the plan to launch the kickstarter next March. That will however be a much bigger kickstarter than Fey Wanderer trying to raise considerably more money so I will be having to put a lot of my energy into that. I also have an idea for another ttrpg, this one not fey related but set in Arthurian Camelot. The basic premise is that you can play as either knights of the round table trying to protect the realm from outside threats or play nights of Morgana le Fay trying to overthrow Arthur and his knights. It will use tarot mechanics and is still very much up in the air as I will yet again have to do my research, this time digging out my copy of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and reading through that. A wonderful book but very big and usually reserved for university students’ English courses!
B: Thank you again for talking with me! Where can folks find you if they want to see what you’re up to?
Neil: Thanks for having me. You can find me on Twitter while that still exists @feyearth I am also recently on Blue Sky so if you get an invite code you can find me there @feyearth.bsky.social.
I have an itch.io page with an early release version of my core rulebook the Explorers Guide to Fey Earth, a really fun starter adventure for levels 1-5 set in 19th century Yorkshire called Trouble in the North, a number of one-shots and a really fun game I co-wrote with Kat the Loremistress two years ago which uses the caltrop core system and is based on a beloved 90s cartoon called the Animals of Farthing Wood. Everything on that page is pwyw. I also have the early release core rulebook and starter adventure over on drivethrurpg under the name Bramble Heart Games which is the name of the company I founded for when I eventually publish Fey Earth.
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Thanks again to Neil for talking with me! Please follow any of the links above to check out more of Neil’s work. And join us in a few weeks* as we talk with Ennio, a TTRPG creator and layout artist from Puerto Rico, about his game Bloodless and so much more! [*Editor’s Note: TheRatHole.ca will be on our yearly GenCon hiatus in early August. But we will be back in a few weeks, with more interviews and reviews, as well as videos on our YouTube Channel and more live-play on our new Twitch channel.]
