Strange and Wonderful

At the time of this writing the adventure compilation Adventures and Interludes is in editing and am I am drafting a sourcebook/supplement focused on the fey and on the Land of Fairie called Betwixt and Between. In addition to The Hero's Journey core book, there are currently four additional products available in the game line: The Narrator's Screen, The Hero's Companion, The Hero's Grimoire and Of Beasts Brave and True. That's a lot of material.

And you don't have to use all of it at once. 

One of the cornerstone elements of The Hero's Journey is keeping magic magical and ensuring that the strange, fantastic elements of the game and its world stay wondrous. To that end, I wanted to talk for a moment about how I, as a designer, intend for the supplement books in the product line are intended to be used. 

I have found that there is an unspoken implication that if a product is "official" then it is automatically assumed to be available for use in any given game. This goes beyond The Hero's Journey and seems to be a universal assumption across the roleplaying hobby. I reject this notion.

I find it perfectly reasonable to assume that nothing aside from material found in the core rule book of any RPG is mandatory or automatically available at the table. In the end, even when it comes to the material presented in a game's core book, nothing - no rule, no character lineage or archetype or heirloom or spell - should be assumed to be automatically present. In the end, the Narrator is looking to create their own unique gaming experience at the table and as such some material within any given game may be appropriate to that and some may not.

During the playtest campaign for the material found in Adventures and Interludes, the legendarium began with only three player characters - all of whom had independently decided to play humans. During first session of the game they didn't encounter a single supernatural. Not an elf, not a halfling, not a monster, not a spell, nor a magic item. By the time we finished one of my players looked up and said "That could've been a historic game. That was really cool - it felt like a real fairy tale." He said he found the lack of heavy magic often found in other games to be refreshing and engaging and that the hint of magic things just on the edge of the adventure made it feel like a real world fairy tale. He called it "refreshing."

As the legendarium continued they inevitably encountered supernatural elements. Fairies and dragons, wizards and curses, evil goblins, the works. But it always felt magical and strange to them because the world was grounded in the mundane. That meant they reacted with wonder and awe and fear whenever they came across something that was magical.

And ya know what? It was refreshing for me too.

The Hero's Journey line of products is full of fantastical stuff. From the core Lineages available like elves and dwarves to the more unusual stuff like Tree-Folk and Rovers in The Hero's Companion, to the magical dangers found in Adventures and Interludes - but use it sparingly. A little goes a long way.

Keep magic magical and keep the wondrous wonderful.