Fantasy Role Playing Games and Fairy Tales About Fairies - Powell, Prince of Dyfed

One of the more interesting fairy tales involving the land of fairy Powell, Prince of Dyfed is one of many early fantasy stories from the land of Arthur (Wales). There are a number of stories regarding the exploits of Powell; however the one which introduces him is perhaps of the most interest for those who play fantasy role playing games. In this story Powell is out hunting when he meets and befriends a fairy king. The fairy king is having trouble with an enemy he can't defeat, so he and Powell switch places so that Powell may continue the war with the other fairy princes and defeat their leader.

It is interesting how human many of the fairies seem in this fairy tale, very different from much of what we currently think of fairies as being. Fairies it would seem from this and a number of other stories gained their abilities primarily through knowledge, their ability to know almost anything. For like Powell the fairy king too enjoys hunting and holds court, similarly enough that they could pass for each other.

The idea behind what made a hero in the eyes of the Welsh is also interesting to take note of. For it was said of Powell that;

"He could ride a horse, draw a bow, and speak the truth. He was always honored by men, and he kept his faith and his promises to women. The children loved him, for he loved them. In the castle hall, he could tell the best stories. No man, bard, or warrior, foot

holder or commoner, could excel him in gaining and keeping the attention of his hearers."

One must of course realize that this story was indeed edited by those who wrote it down and so some of this description may have been based on the thinking of the 1800s. However this description of a hero is useful for anyone trying to create an RPG or fantasy character which will have to deal with fairies, for fairies believe very firmly in honesty, and admire greatly the skills of story telling and music. Indeed Powell would not have done so well in fairy land if he had not had these traits.

Another quality Powell had was politeness, for in his discussion with the king of the fairies it was how polite he was that allowed him to become friends with the king of the fairy. This theme is repeated over and over throughout the stories of fairies that no matter how rude they are one must be very polite to them. For in politeness a person will be rewarded by fairies and in rudeness they will cursed.

In fantasy stories it would be easy to use the idea of politeness and fairy curses and blessings as an element to add interest to the story. For with this element the characters gain unique powers, or interestingly horrible curses. For temporary lapses of rudeness a person could become horribly cursed, and may need to go on a quest to find the fairy who laid the curse on them, or to prove themselves worthy of getting it removed.

The story of Powell is of interest also because it shows a mortal entering the world of fairy to help a fairy king. One could easily see how a story that followed the exploits of someone who switched places with a fairy could be very interesting. Or of someone who entered fairy land and had to return home to grow bored. For in Powell's later exploits he is constantly entering realms of the fairy because he misses the excitement of living within this realm.

Ty Hulse is helping to develop dragonsmeet.net as center for role playing games, where you can learn about the impact of fantasy role playing games He is also the creator of Zeluna.net for fairy tale stories

Propp's Fairy Tale Functions and the Fantasy Role Playing Game

Propp was one of the most brilliant folklorists of all time, very knowledgeable of fairy tales, their meanings, and most especially their story structures. As people during his time attempted to classify stories by key features, and elements, something which led to hundreds of story types, Propp felt it would make more sense to examine story structure based on functions.

In his studies Propp found 31 fairy tale functions, it was his claim that while not all these functions where in any fairy tale, fairy tales where all driven by these functions which all occurred in the numerical order he outlined for them from least to greatest.

While it can be argued that there are perhaps folktales especially those in other cultures that do not follow exactly the outline created by Propp, he certainly discovered something that is true the majority of the time, and when talking about humans that is normally the best one can get, for humans have few if any rules regarding their imagination which are true all the time. It is wise then to utilize Propp's functions set as a tool to understanding fairy tales, rather then simply working to dispute it, because if you try to you will find fairy tales that don't match it, but you will find many more which do.

What Propp means for fantasy stories and RPG's

So what do Propp's functions have to do with fantasy role playing games and fantasy worlds? Everything, for it is Propp's functions which have shown the outline for most all of the early fantasy stories, and certainly for the most famous of such stories. By defining this storyline Propp has not only created a tool for understanding fairy tales, he has created one for writing them, and fantasy stories structured like them, and considering the power and timeless nature of fairy tales this is indeed a valuable story tool. When creating a quest for your characters this tool is invaluable for helping to generate ideas, often times quests are merely a string of challenges rather then a story. Propp offers a more concrete structure for ideas. This way a game master creating an rpg quest could rather then simply stringing together challenges, string together events from meetings with hero's, receiving of magical objects, and villain's natures being revealed.

Of special interest to those creating role playing quests includes the interdiction violated (the players, or someone close to them does something they where told not to). Common in fairy tales, someone is told not to do something, and so they must inevitably do it. In the case of a hero this could be a good opportunity to use external characters to pressure them. Someone close to them bothers them until such time as they do the thing they where told not to. Or the pc's could be forced to choose between a known negative event and an unknown, as they are chased by a dragon, poisoned, or driven to do something they normally would not do to survive. For in fleeing the dragon they enter a fairies private realm angering it. To cure themselves of the poison they make a deal with a stranger. There are many other ways to direct the PC's towards the breaking of the interdiction, allowing you to set them up for the fantasy quest.

Once the interdiction is broken the PC's could find themselves in trouble, and so would need the help of the villain who at this point is disguised as a helper. One of the things that make fairy tales so interesting is the way in which villains often start out as those seeming to help the hero characters. Yet they do so only to cause some sort of harm to or to get something out of the hero. In your role playing game this duality of the villain character could add interest and of course a more story like feel.

On the flip side of the hidden villain is the actual helper character, someone who provides magical aid to the hero. Fairies play in this role well for they do not have their own unknown reasons for helping and so could simply choose to be helpful if the player's characters are friendly to them. What's important to understand in this is that these are not simply random events; it is ok if the pc's receive miraculous help from an outside source in this story structure because this structure is so well known to most peoples. Propp's structure after all is the structure on which most of our fantasy stories are originally based.

Propp's function started with an initial set up situation of who, what, when and where, after this the stories according to him would follow along in order some of the following 31 functions.

1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);

2. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there');

3. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);

4. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);

5. The villain gains information about the victim;

6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);

7. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;

8. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);

9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);

10. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;

11. Hero leaves home;

12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

13. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);

14. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);

15. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

16. Hero and villain join in direct combat;

17. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

20. Hero returns;

21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

23. Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;

24. False hero presents unfounded claims;

25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);

26. Task is resolved;

27. Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

28. False hero or villain is exposed;

29. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);

30. Villain is punished;

31. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Ty Hulse is helping to develop dragonsmeet.net as center for role playing games, where you can learn about the impact of fairy tales on RPG's, and about creating fantasy worlds for your role playing games.