Terrible Beauty by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This supplement covers the races and realms of faerie.
The supplement is available as a 60 page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $10, as a softcover print on demand book for $23.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $24.99. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. The supplement is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. There are two versions of the PDF, one with and one without a background. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter, one the Table of Contents, two pages are the Index and one page is an ad for Tombs of the Desolation.
Chapter 1: Faeries starts with the nature of faeries, their immorality, vulnerability to iron and relationship to mortals. Faeries often steal children, as they have very few of their own, and can interbreed with mortals, producing faeries or fauns. The great fey, the most powerful lords and ladies, are mentioned in passing but are never given more than a brief overview in the supplement. Most faeries live in the hidden kingdoms, but some do not.
Characters and Faeries is for creating characters from the faerie races. There are professions and starting equipment listed as well as new backgrounds for characters that are not faeries but have been influenced by them and a d20 table of interesting things from the hidden kingdoms.
New Ancestries has ancestry details for Elves, the lords and ladies of the realms, Hobgoblins, the short-lived soldiers and Pixies, the wee folk. There is a new Expert path and ten new Master paths. Magic has spells from the Fey tradition, as well as some appropriate spells from others.
Chapter 2: Lands of the Faerie starts with places in the mortal realms that have been touched by the faeries. Some of these provide access to the hidden kingdoms, there are secret roads that allow travel between distant places and some faeries maintain realms in the mortal world on islands. Trees and forests are also protected by some faeries and there are a few monuments and constructions still standing. Many of these are dangerous.
Borderlands are the places between the mortal realms and the hidden kingdoms, and they are how to get from one to the other. They do not have to be lands either; some are items.
Hidden Kingdoms covers the actual realms of the faerie, most of which are outside the world, carved out of the Void, and how to get to them. Mortals who visit may be affected by a wasting sickness and there is a sidebar on talking animals. Next are three d20 tables of interesting characters, strange sights and weird events.
Several of the realms are then mentioned. Alfheim is the greatest and is the home of Titania, the Queen of the Faeries. The faerie realm in the Northern Reach was destroyed by trolls and the Men of Gog, so the faeries retreated to Alfheim. Elysium is a paradise where the most worthy mortal souls are sent, but it is a paradise that can become boring. The Isle of Forever is one of the island realms, in a lake in the Grand Duchy of the West. The Maze of the Goblin King is perhaps one of the easiest hidden kingdoms to find; this doesn’t mean finding it is a good idea. It is also a fairly random place. The Midnight Lands are the location of the former realm of Niflheim in Balgrendia. A sidebar in this section mentions the tithe of souls that the faeries have to send to Diabolus in Hell, as part of an agreement.
Rewards has some gifts that the great fey might grant mortals, and there are a number of faerie relics. Most of them not exactly safe.
Chapter 3: Creatures of Faerie is the bestiary which includes a variety of faerie and faerie-related creatures – and the Jabberwock. Some of the creatures can be chosen as player ancestries.
Chapter 4: My Father Left Forever is an Expert adventure set in the Northern Reach. The characters are approached by a teenage girl in the vicinity of the Mistwood (but it can be moved to another forest if needed) whose father has disappeared, captivated by a nymph. There is a hex map of the area, making parts of it like a hexcrawl, although a chunk of the map is obscured by the key. There are various random and fixed encounters.
Terrible Beauty in Review
Both PDFs have bookmarks covering the major and minor sections, a Table of Contents that is to a similar level of detail and is also hyperlinked as well as an Index. Navigation is very good. The text maintains a two column format and a couple of minor errors were spotted. There are a variety of full colour illustrations, up to about half a page in size, that look to be custom. Presentation is very good.
The faeries and elves in this book appear to take a lot more from the traditional Celtic myths than the more typical fantasy varieties, which tend to have been heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien, even though most fantasy elves are not similar to Tolkien’s. This means that they tend to be nastier, even the “nicer” types. There is also a slight influence from Lewis Carroll; the Vorpal Sword and the Jabberwock make an appearance.
Players will be able to create faerie characters using the information in this book, broadening the selection of possible ancestries. The faeries themselves are dangerous, and the hidden kingdoms are interesting, although they are not covered in any great detail. It’s a shame that the great fey are not covered in more detail; they probably aren’t the sort of beings that characters would survive going up against, but some more detail on them would be nice.
The adventure is, well, depressing. The players may not know everything that happens or has happened but frankly no matter what the outcome the GM will know they are unlikely to make a difference. There is only one specific series that has a remotely good outcome, to the GM’s knowledge – unless the characters continue helping after they have finished, those they helped are going to die anyway. Of those that are still alive; most die or disappear before the characters even get a chance to help. Shadow of the Demon Lord is a dark setting, sure, but this is the sort of adventure that they may as well not even bother getting involved in.
With the possible exception of the adventure, most of the supplement is pretty good, providing more background and information on the potentially dangerous races of faerie, and their influences and kingdoms. Terrible Beauty can be found by clicking here.
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