Fae Noir FAQs

[JustinB]

Got a question about Fae Noir?
This is where the Fae Noir FAQ will go once there are questions which are frequently asked. Ask away, and you too can be immortalized on teh intraweb!

[Spikey]

So I think the most important question is 'what expansions and supplements do you have planned?'

More importantly will there be any books to update the setting to the Noir / hard boiled / pulp era (post world war II)?

[JustinB]

So I think the most important question is 'what expansions and supplements do you have planned?'

More importantly will there be any books to update the setting to the Noir / hard boiled / pulp era (post world war II)?

Hi, sorry it's taken a bit to respond. Got a new job so have been out of communication for a week or so.
Anyway, current supplements that are planned:

Amazing Arcana! - (complete, having art delays) This is the magic expansion for FN. It covers magic items, has stats for a plethora of spirits and undead creatures, a few dozen new spells, and lots of setting information about magic in general.

The Fae Noir Companion - I'll be writing this within a few months of Amazing Arcana being done. (Currently working on a new game project, which doesn't have a good name yet, so hasn't been put up on the site.) This will contain a lot of information about the themes of the FN setting, including some role-playing hints, GMing hints, a breakdown of turning fairy-tales into adventures and noir stories into adventures, a few alternate rule systems, and a bunch of animal and NPC stats.

Arcadia - This will be the in-depth book about the world of the fae.

Currently there are no plans to update the setting to post WWII. I know one of the freelance writers I work with has stated interest in doing something along those lines, so it's not out of the question, but it would be more of a short setting book.

[Immunis]

I have two questions for this thread.

1) Why did you decide on a d8 dice pool when d8's aren't in most dice collections in large numbers?

2) Why call it Noir then set it outside of the Noir period, which to most people starts during the great depression not the roaring 20's?

[JustinB]

I'm actually really glad you asked those questions, because I keep seeing them pop up in places where it seems inappropriate to respond.

1) I used d8s because I wanted the default spread of attributes for humans to be 1-7. Using an odd number for the trait range meant there is a truly "average" attribute. I didn't realize that the die type would be as "controversial" as it has apparently turned out to be because I started playing the game just using 4d8 and rerolling them. It's what I do with most dice-pool games. When it came time to buy a whole ton of dice for GenCon demos and whatnot, I was able to get 30 d8s at the game shop for about $5. So it just didn't seem like it was going to be a problem. I would also point out that before White Wolf games became popular, people didn't have a ton of d10s on hand.

2) The game is named Fae Noir because the stories and overall feel of the game are intended to be dark and gritty. I was using noir in the broader, modern genre sense rather than in the specific Great Depression through WWII sense. In the same way that the film Brick about modern teenagers in high school is a noir story, the essential grounding of FN is, to me, a noir setting. Although pulp literature was quite popular in the 20s, there was also a deep sense of isolation and confusion for many Americans, let alone the people in ravaged Europe. Hemingway and Fitzgerald and all their buddies were called "the Lost Generation." When you take a close look at the poverty and violence that are endemic to many locations in the decade, I feel that the 1920s are actually VERY dark, as dark as the 1930s, but under a sheen of glamour that ultimately proved rotten to the core.
Second, the 1920s in real history are the pivotal decade when what we consider the modern era really starts. It's the birth of the mass automobile ownership, electric lighting, affordable transcontinental travel, and a lot more. One of the main themes of FN in my mind has always been the clash between modernity and history; the fae and humans. As such, the 20s seemed a natural period to set the action.

[Immunis]

Thanks for two very sound answers.

I've bought a copy of the game, not quite sure when I'll get to play it in its true form but bits and pieces will be used in my other games.

I like the genre of industrialised fantasy and have been tinkering with ideas of a Warhammer Fantasy campaign moved to a World War 1 tech level.

[JustinB]

Thanks for two very sound answers.

I've bought a copy of the game, not quite sure when I'll get to play it in its true form but bits and pieces will be used in my other games.

I like the genre of industrialised fantasy and have been tinkering with ideas of a Warhammer Fantasy campaign moved to a World War 1 tech level.

Cool. I'd love to hear about you end up doing.