Hi, not quite sure how to make this work and was wondering if you guys could.help me.
So, one of my players emailed me today, saying that she wants her character to have a child.
She wants the child to be a half fey child - like not a half elf, but literally she wants the child's father to be an actual fey creature.
I don't know how to do this. Can Fey creatures (a humanoid one obviously) even have children with humans?
Also, how can I make it so her character even gets pregnant. I thought about maybe like having her dream about it, but only it wasn't a dream. She doesn't realise at first it really happened though.
But that would mean some Fey, would have to either come from its realm or take her into its realm, for the purpose of well - doing this.
That's also another thing. I have an 11 year old in my game and I don't think she should be exposed to any kind of sexual roleplay, so I want to keep that totally out of it.
Would really appreciate some thoughts on this
Cheers
I got some responses and emailed my player back, asking her for clarification and more details about what she was wanting and expecting.
When I asked her to clarify what she meant by a "half-fey" she sent me several pictures from a google search, that seemed to show an otherworldly, yet humanoid female fey. They were a mix of art and cosplay, and seemed to resemble humanoid, and human size creatures that looked more like sprites and a few that looked like dryads.
She also sent me a link to half-fey on dndbeyond, as well as some stuff from pathfinder and strongly hinted that she would want her child to be some kind of nymph, who was a fierce protector of nature and other fey. Someone who loves sunny glades and freshwater streams, sunbeams and clearings in forests, but who struggles to fit in, in the human world because of her "fey beauty and grace" and isn't really accepted by the fey courts because of her human ancestors.
She also doesn't want to carry the child around with her either. She wants it to more of an NPC, who she leaves in the care her family, who kind of protect the child from those who wish to hurt it (interesting) and she wants to like write letters back and forth and send toys and some of her treasure back for her child and to visit her on a somewhat regular basis.
While she is visiting, she plans on teaching her child to be an adventurer and would like it to accompany her on some of her adventures, when it is old enough.
She also wanted the child's father to leave his daughter gifts every now and then - things like food and flowers and pets from the feywild and to sometimes visit her (in secret) to show her cool things. Like she wants him to take her on excursions into the feywild, but to always bring her back home. Each time though, she's a little bit older and a little bit stronger and has learned a little more fey magic (mostly illusion and nature related), which she shows off to her mother whenever she visits.
She is fine with not having the actual procreation scene in the roleplay but she did say that she wants to roleplay her pregnancy and suggested the she could do behind the scenes things. She also wants the child's feyness and her intimate contact with a fey, to have an effect on her - leaving her feytouched.
So she wants her character to change slightly. She wants her magic to turn into more wild magic and she specifically said she wants to use wild magic tables and her appearance to change to slightly take on a kind of fey-like aura.
So at least she is being more specific now, but she is sort of changing her character and her character's motives. I could be persuaded to explain this as, she has started to grow up, has found someone she loves and is generally becoming more mature.
I am still having some problems with this however as she is changing a lot about her character, the child seems a little ott and this will make for a very different campaign, for everyone - not just her.
Also, I am really not sure what kind of fey, would be able to give her this kind of child or what their motives would be in doing so.
I am still stuck on this, so I thought I would ask here as well to try and come up with the best solution. It is my fault, for planning out so much detail for my campaign I guess, but I am having difficulty in changing the story to fit this new character she will have. It will be her same character, but these changes and the addition of child will alter her character so much, that it will basically be a new one.
By any chance, have you had a character in your games who have had a half-fey child, or have any games you have played had one? If so, how did you or those DMs approach the child and the players character?
Do you guys have any advice, general or specific on how I can give my player what she wants? I should be finding this easy, but I am actually not. so thanks for any help you can give me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
How about surrogacy. A Fey creature needs someone to carry the child because of some danger to them in the fey realm. And basically they're needing to get the unborn child out of the fey and away from the sight of the raven queen or the shadow realm. To do this favour, there would obviously be some sort of favour involved. Then the unborn could be magically transferred into the new mother to be. The Fey hadn't anticipated that this would cause the child to start to develop human traits/features, but it's all too late by the time they realise it's happening. You could also story arc this magic to have an impact on her as the host, which could bring around the wild magic that she's after. Some sort of transference of fey/human between her and they fey child now growing inside her, causing her to take on Fey characteristics as the pregnancy develops.
A sufficiently powerful fey can do what it wants, and definitely whatever the story demands, and that can include non-sexual procreation. A more tasteful way to do this would definitely be to avoid any vague "abduction into the fey world" situation. Perhaps tie this into your wider story, and use it as a motivating factor for the character. Explain to the player that they will begin to have dreams of a being who needs their help. These can be roleplayed across several sessions, including providing some minor secret info on some big bad who is holding this fey prisoner in a genie-bottle style cage (in addition to whatever other evil plot they have planned). The character spends a lot of time chatting with this fey in their dreams and can develop an off-screen romance if that is important to them. The character (with the party) would then rescue the fey as part of a boss fight session, and let it involve some personal sacrifice from the character. Script the next bit with the player beforehand: after the fey is rescued they wait until the big bad is defeated before rewarding the party. Give each player a magical object like Galadriel handing out personalised gifts, then last look at the character and say that "I grant you your heart's desire". Have the player rp confusion and uncertainty along with the party but you will have explained out of game before; at the end of the session as the party settles to rest you say some key phrase to the player "You feel a strange sensation, and your mind is filled with a sudden realization of truth", which is the cue for her to make the surprise announcement of pregnancy to the party herself. I think it is important that as much of this as possible comes from the player's mouth, and you never have to say "you're pregnant!".
This pregnancy need not take 9 months because magic, can be completely rp from the player, and some fey magic supports her to prevent any of the normal stresses of pregnancy interfering with her adventuring. Birth should probably happen off screen, let the player describe it to the party as much as is appropriate. The fey parent can midwife the birth and take the child immediately to family for safe keeping (and to allow for adventure to continue without interruption of physical visit to home), and a minor fey messenger can turn up whenever to keep up a feeling of contact and security.
You are well within rights to reject the Wild Magic stuff due to complexity and balance. But depending on the class/subclass of the character perhaps allow a change of subclass to a more fey/nature/dream/wild choice to represent the changes. Alternatively everything can be rp and reskinning appearances.
The other stuff seems like it is all in the distant future, and can mostly be off screen rp stuff, but if you explain further what sort of concerns you have then we might have suggestions.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I originally asked this question on reddit
I got some responses and emailed my player back, asking her for clarification and more details about what she was wanting and expecting.
When I asked her to clarify what she meant by a "half-fey" she sent me several pictures from a google search, that seemed to show an otherworldly, yet humanoid female fey. They were a mix of art and cosplay, and seemed to resemble humanoid, and human size creatures that looked more like sprites and a few that looked like dryads.
She also sent me a link to half-fey on dndbeyond, as well as some stuff from pathfinder and strongly hinted that she would want her child to be some kind of nymph, who was a fierce protector of nature and other fey. Someone who loves sunny glades and freshwater streams, sunbeams and clearings in forests, but who struggles to fit in, in the human world because of her "fey beauty and grace" and isn't really accepted by the fey courts because of her human ancestors.
She also doesn't want to carry the child around with her either. She wants it to more of an NPC, who she leaves in the care her family, who kind of protect the child from those who wish to hurt it (interesting) and she wants to like write letters back and forth and send toys and some of her treasure back for her child and to visit her on a somewhat regular basis.
While she is visiting, she plans on teaching her child to be an adventurer and would like it to accompany her on some of her adventures, when it is old enough.
She also wanted the child's father to leave his daughter gifts every now and then - things like food and flowers and pets from the feywild and to sometimes visit her (in secret) to show her cool things. Like she wants him to take her on excursions into the feywild, but to always bring her back home. Each time though, she's a little bit older and a little bit stronger and has learned a little more fey magic (mostly illusion and nature related), which she shows off to her mother whenever she visits.
She is fine with not having the actual procreation scene in the roleplay but she did say that she wants to roleplay her pregnancy and suggested the she could do behind the scenes things. She also wants the child's feyness and her intimate contact with a fey, to have an effect on her - leaving her feytouched.
So she wants her character to change slightly. She wants her magic to turn into more wild magic and she specifically said she wants to use wild magic tables and her appearance to change to slightly take on a kind of fey-like aura.
So at least she is being more specific now, but she is sort of changing her character and her character's motives. I could be persuaded to explain this as, she has started to grow up, has found someone she loves and is generally becoming more mature.
I am still having some problems with this however as she is changing a lot about her character, the child seems a little ott and this will make for a very different campaign, for everyone - not just her.
Also, I am really not sure what kind of fey, would be able to give her this kind of child or what their motives would be in doing so.
I am still stuck on this, so I thought I would ask here as well to try and come up with the best solution. It is my fault, for planning out so much detail for my campaign I guess, but I am having difficulty in changing the story to fit this new character she will have. It will be her same character, but these changes and the addition of child will alter her character so much, that it will basically be a new one.
By any chance, have you had a character in your games who have had a half-fey child, or have any games you have played had one? If so, how did you or those DMs approach the child and the players character?
Do you guys have any advice, general or specific on how I can give my player what she wants? I should be finding this easy, but I am actually not. so thanks for any help you can give me.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
How about surrogacy. A Fey creature needs someone to carry the child because of some danger to them in the fey realm. And basically they're needing to get the unborn child out of the fey and away from the sight of the raven queen or the shadow realm. To do this favour, there would obviously be some sort of favour involved. Then the unborn could be magically transferred into the new mother to be. The Fey hadn't anticipated that this would cause the child to start to develop human traits/features, but it's all too late by the time they realise it's happening. You could also story arc this magic to have an impact on her as the host, which could bring around the wild magic that she's after. Some sort of transference of fey/human between her and they fey child now growing inside her, causing her to take on Fey characteristics as the pregnancy develops.
A sufficiently powerful fey can do what it wants, and definitely whatever the story demands, and that can include non-sexual procreation. A more tasteful way to do this would definitely be to avoid any vague "abduction into the fey world" situation. Perhaps tie this into your wider story, and use it as a motivating factor for the character. Explain to the player that they will begin to have dreams of a being who needs their help. These can be roleplayed across several sessions, including providing some minor secret info on some big bad who is holding this fey prisoner in a genie-bottle style cage (in addition to whatever other evil plot they have planned). The character spends a lot of time chatting with this fey in their dreams and can develop an off-screen romance if that is important to them. The character (with the party) would then rescue the fey as part of a boss fight session, and let it involve some personal sacrifice from the character. Script the next bit with the player beforehand: after the fey is rescued they wait until the big bad is defeated before rewarding the party. Give each player a magical object like Galadriel handing out personalised gifts, then last look at the character and say that "I grant you your heart's desire". Have the player rp confusion and uncertainty along with the party but you will have explained out of game before; at the end of the session as the party settles to rest you say some key phrase to the player "You feel a strange sensation, and your mind is filled with a sudden realization of truth", which is the cue for her to make the surprise announcement of pregnancy to the party herself. I think it is important that as much of this as possible comes from the player's mouth, and you never have to say "you're pregnant!".
This pregnancy need not take 9 months because magic, can be completely rp from the player, and some fey magic supports her to prevent any of the normal stresses of pregnancy interfering with her adventuring. Birth should probably happen off screen, let the player describe it to the party as much as is appropriate. The fey parent can midwife the birth and take the child immediately to family for safe keeping (and to allow for adventure to continue without interruption of physical visit to home), and a minor fey messenger can turn up whenever to keep up a feeling of contact and security.
You are well within rights to reject the Wild Magic stuff due to complexity and balance. But depending on the class/subclass of the character perhaps allow a change of subclass to a more fey/nature/dream/wild choice to represent the changes. Alternatively everything can be rp and reskinning appearances.
The other stuff seems like it is all in the distant future, and can mostly be off screen rp stuff, but if you explain further what sort of concerns you have then we might have suggestions.