Mapping the Feywild

If you DM, you probably have a world map, or at least a continent map or local area map. However, I bet you haven’t made a map of the Feywild!

The Feywild is supposed to be an analogue of the natural world, so you could reasonably take an outline of your world map, color everything green for Forest, and dot it with some cool feywild locations. As an alternative, though, what about using something like this for your Feywild map?

“The Prince’s Quest: A Fairy Race Game” is a boardgame from 1890. It seems to play a bit like Candyland. It is probably not great as a game, but it has nice Victorian fairy art and some interesting locations that could be turned into strange encounters: for instance 28. The Talking Dog, 10. The Goblin Gate or 185. Malachite Bridge.

It seems thematic that the Feywild is all about following permissible paths, not about travelling freely in any direction. You can’t really map Fairyland: it resists definition, and directions and distances may be mutable anyway. The way to get somewhere is not to follow a map but to follow instructions: “Follow the setting sun until you get to the Glass Hill, then throw a straw in the air and travel in the direction it points, until you reach the Oracle, who…” etc.

You could either make the players play the game to travel, or just let them travel their speed along the paths.

The gameboard is sold as wrapping paper for $4 from Kate’s Paperie, which is how I got it: around a birthday present.

5 Responses to “Mapping the Feywild”

  1. […] dorky name, I like the Feywild. It's one of my favorite parts of 4e cosmology. A DM can introduce fantastic elements in the Feywild: even larger-than-life than the usual larger-than-life D&D stuff. Still, three […]

  2. […] This tunnel system doesn't seem like something that belongs in the Underdark, but it actually seems like it could be a good fit for the Feydark. The Feydark, the Feywild mirror of the Underdark, is a 4e invention that, until now, never inspired in me a glimmer of interest. But it might actually work as a scene of undefined horror from which you can only run. Also, the blind, skill-challenge-based travel of the Dark Ride fits in with my idea that travel through Fairyland is not something that you can map. […]

  3. Pierce says:

    Very cool map. I may need a roll of that wrapping paper. Is there a better image online somewhere?

  4. paul says:

    I see that the link to buy the wrapping paper is broken now. I can’t find a larger image. My piece is about the size of a battlemat – too big to scan: if you can’t find the $4 wrapping paper, the next best might be a 1995 collection of edwardian board games that probably has some other amazing stuff in it.

  5. […] odd NPCs and encounter fairy-tale magical thinking where everything comes in threes. And you can use this awesome world map! The only problem is that it seems like it requires a superhuman DM to maintain the level of wonder […]

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