r/fatherfog

I was pretty stoked when I saw Fatherfog first show up on the Tuesday Knight Games web shop, and I was excited when it finally arrived last week. I'm actually going to run a game at a local convention in less than two weeks, but my challenge now is thinking of an actual adventure since there isn't an official intro adventure just yet.

My high-level idea is to do something along the lines of La Llorona (I'm pretty partial to the adaptation for Uncaged on DM's Guild), but to play on the themes of children and loss, maybe mix in Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and/or Goldilocks...? I'm still trying to figure it all out, but hopefully it would make for an interesting convention one-shot**.**

On that note, I'm wondering what cool adventure ideas others have been coming up with to run in this new system?

I ran a practice session with my husband tonight to familiarize myself (and him) with the rules.

I decided to run it as a "where were you when the fog first rolled in?" session, taking him from the first Fog to his first time entering a Foghouse.

I mostly winged it, though I had a mental list of fairy tale motifs, folklore references and some inspiration from reading dark fairy tail fantasy recently. (Naomi Novik's Uprooted)

He rolled up a green-cloaked worker (fisherman). I asked him where he was when the fog rolled in and he said "Fishing on the lake in his rowboat, in the morning. He just thought it was a lake mist at first."

He hooked something strong, fought it (failed Str + fishing) and his line snapped. A moment later, there was a scratching against the side and it sounded like something was trying to scramble up into his boat.

He grabbed his oars to row out and felt resistance on one side. Thinking it was seaweed, he lifted up his oars. Through the fog he saw a dark shape, like a tangled mass of seaweed but then it started to move, clawing up the oar. It scrambled close enough for him to see its smallish head, with flat black eyes and a huge mouth of needle teeth, seaweed hair, two misshapen spindly arms ending in blackened claws and a silvery scaly fish body, maybe 30" long. It was attempting to bite him where he held the oar. He tossed the oar & the merrow with it (successful Spirit save; failed Mind Save) but not before it clawed his arm.

With one oar, he tried to paddle his rowboat like a canoe (Disadvantage, failed his boating check) back to town, but ended up at a familiar lakeside farm a couple miles away, one he had visited just yesterday. He pulled his rowboat onto shore and headed through the fog towards the farmhouse, a little concerned at the eerie quiet as he passed near fields.

The fog parted enough for him to see the farmhouse (successful perception check) but it was covered in vines. The farmers wife was in her kitchen garden, but the crop that was fine and ready for harvest yesterday was now withered and tainted with a black fungus while a strange new fruit crop had grown up suddenly, seemingly overnight. Her back was turned but he could see that the farmer's wife was bent over one of the large fruits, her body unnaturally bent, in an almost bestial pose, with her face pressed into the fruit, gobbling it greedily. (Failed mind save)

He retreated back from the house and began walking back towards town along the shore. The shoreline was unchanged but what should have been a second neighboring farm was now old forest. There was no sign of the town's church steeple in the distance either. Through the fog he could just make out (successful perception) strange shadowy human sized birdlike things (sluagh) picking at a corpse on the ground and avoided them without being seen. (Successful mind save)

Then he heard the horn and saw the beacon light. Hope (1) returned to him. He set a course towards it, through the newly appeared forest and strange terrain.

He heard horse hooves and hid behind a tree (successful int check) and watched a beautiful Palomino stallion cross his path. It wore no saddle or bridle and seemed lively but not wild. (He failed perception and did not notice it was unshod)

He approached it twice (two failed animal checks and a failed forage check to find a crabapple to feed it) and it repeatedly shied away, leading him further from his course.

He returned to his course, then encountered a familiar hill and cliff, which he climbed to gain a view of the altered countryside, the fog in all directions and not just one beacon in the fog, but other distant ones. He also saw a river he would need to cross.

Looking for a way to cross (failed perception) he encountered the horse again, now drinking at the river, and finally (animal with advantage; successful) was able to approach it. Hoping to use it to cross the river, he shared half his rations with it (leaving him hungry after his long day), pet it, then mounted it.

And its flanks turned into kelp, tangling his legs, its whole body turned to kelp, and the kelpie horse dragged him into the river (failed Spirit save; successful mind save; successful Body save to keep air in his lungs)

He kept trying to cut himself free and escape but kept failing and the kelpie strangled him.

Death came. I asked him how his character viewed Death. Was it a garden of souls or a room of candles or a master of games, bargaining for souls? My husband wasn't feeling inspired, so I made his Death a fisherman, who hooked his soul and pulled him into his boat. With a successful Body save, and a roll on Death's bargain table, Death said, "You are a little small, I had better throw you back so you can grow a bit first. But you must give me your lies and only speak truth forevermore."

Health flooded back into his body, breath still in his lungs, still being choked by the kelpie in the center of the river. He could still feel the iron fishhook from Death in his lip, really there, and he grabbed it and used it to swipe at the kelpie. First a miss, then finally a hit and it recoiled from the iron, just long enough for him to swim away, though he got bashed into some rocks by the current and felt the kelpie grasping at his kicking heels before he fell, gasping, cold, and drenched to the other side of the river. Failing his body save, he shivered with cold and would make checks with disadvantage until he was again warm and dry.

He trod on towards the Foghouse, and saw an apple tree. Only having eaten half his lunch, he could not resist, but even with disadvantage, he passed his perception check and noticed a dryad at the tree. He greeted her respectfully, told her his story and was granted an apple, with a promise to her that he would plant the apple seeds on his way, per her request.

He planted the seeds near the tower and knocked on the door. A woman greeted him and he met other survivors, drying his clothes and warming himself by the fire. That is where we ended the session.

We both enjoyed it!

I love Death. Bits are neat. The cloak/brooch/coin etc flavor is great. I enjoy the shifting eerie landscape with a few points of light/safety. I like rolling for equipment availability. Combat is fast, harsh and easy to run. I like how the survival mechanics (hunger, thirst, sleep, travel) can be used to entice PCs into breaking fairy tale taboos, like taking forbidden food or drinking from uncertain sources or trying to mount an unknown steed, no matter how rare and odd it is to find one.

I love how the thematic interplay between hope and horror keeps things uncertain. When there is some wonder mixed in, the horror hits harder.

Spirit definitely needs a rename. I am okay with the name of Will, because I understand it as "being able to do something physical from sheer gumption" though it took me a minute to adjust.

I need to flesh out the Foghouse/Fogkeeper and make a file of quick NPCs, but I plan to run a campaign that will have the party running Foglines from either Foghouse to Foghouse or from persistant geological features to Foghouses. They would also record their own encounters as well as stories from other travelers, in a book, to aid those who traverse the Fog. Grimm work but someone has to do it!

I will probably make a list of encounters and slot them in when/if it seems appropriate, based on what the party wants to do.

I think running it as a true, specific fairy tale would be challenging, because fairy tales rely on archetypal roles (and only one hero) and a very defined structure. But I could see having them come across Blackbeard's third wedding or stumbling on the Robbergroom's maiden dinner party. And it seems easy to fit in folkloric tales of supernatural encounters and some motifs.