Van Richten's Guide to Shadow Fey
Author's notes
Brett King
Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey was a great project. I've always loved fairy tales, be they Celtic folklore or the Brothers Grimm. These stories are most children's introduction to fantasy and horror, and I think you can really tap into the feelings left behind with stories of the fey. My background is writing adventures for the RPGA, and one of the RPGA adventures I wrote was called "A Gruesome Faerie Tale". It was very well received, so I was especially excited about getting to tackle the genre again in VRG to the Shadow Fey. Incidentally, the first RPGA adventure I ever wrote was a Ravenloft adventure called "Sarcophagyn", which is my user ID on the message boards.
I was responsible for chapters 6, 7, and 8, plus a small part of the DM's Appendix. Rucht Lilavivat wrote the Intro, chapters 1 and 4, and the DM's Appendix. Penny Williams wrote chapters 2 and 3, and Tadd McDivitt wrote chapter 5 and a piece of the Appendix.
My favorite part of working on this book was writing the anecdotal stories. "The Immortal Mind" and "Interactions with Mortals" chapters gave me lots of opportunities in that regard.I also really enjoyed working on the twins' hunt in chapter 8. I hope I did them justice; I was quite attached to their characters by the time I was through. Of course, I was also pretty attached to the wicked powrie and teg in the story, but the heroes do have to win in the end. :-)
Finally, I'd like to thank the developers, Jackie and Nicky, for giving me the opportunity to work in my favorite campaign setting.
Please send your articles to submissions@fraternityofshadows.com