Thanks to Kobold Press for sponsoring this video all about The Book of Ebon Tides and Tales From the Shadows! Get yours in print or PDF: ► koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/book-of-ebon-tides-for-5th-edition/ ► koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/tales-from-the-shadows-for-5th-edition/

As a young girl who loved to read grimm fairytales as a kid I also have not grown out of the dark fey vibes. Probably why I love dnd and specifically anything fey so much.

"It's very fucked up I love it!" is always a sign of great content.

"they are not paying me to run a campaign" *blink* Yeah, do that! Sponsor her! Do it now KP!

The Feywild is such an interesting and surprisingly dynamic location for games! Folk horror, whimsical fairy tale, dark political intrigue, all of them and more fit perfectly with the Fey. I’m building a political game in a home brew take on the Feywild and it’s been a great time! Looking forward to some inspiration from this video.

"Life is short and D&D is long" is iconic and I'm gonna go put this on a shirt now.

for anyone curious, there is a domain of dread in Ravenloft called "The Shadow Rift" that had dark fae with it's own seelie and unseelie court. It is accessed by the neighboring realm of Tepest that has to deal with fae all the time. There were even 2 modules in an old edition. I am currently running a campaign in Tepest and using those dark fae and it's incredible, my party is terrified. One of the characters even got their shadow stolen.

Kenna's backstory got my brain spinning the most. Just thinking about if Kenna hired the mage to take her and her child somewhere (like they were on the run from something or moving or whatever) and the Kenna's child wonders off or is lured off the shadow roads. So Kenna ran off after her child to protect them. But she is abused by the memory thief and loses her memory of her child. So her child is now lost plane of shadows. Maybe they gang comes across her child during their adventure. Maybe this is before Kenna regains her memories so she doesn't know its her child yet. Maybe child got corrupted by the shadows. Maybe the child gets entangle in a rival fairy court of Aravni's, or even one of those lost courts you mentioned. Idk, so many possibilities.

In my setting, there’s an Elven nation called Davael. Davael is a theocracy dedicated to beings they call the ‘Bright Creators’, whom they believe originally made the world but whose glory was usurped by the other Gods. The Davaeli are fiercely devoted to the Bright Creators, and the most loyal are allowed to drink from the Bright Font, becoming Eladrin - the chosen children of the Creators. The problem is the story is not true and the Bright Creators are just a bunch of capricious, dangerous and bored Fey who basically pranked a nation of several million elves into religious extremism for kicks and profit.

Omg please do more videos in this format! Campaign setting prep is SO INTERESTING I am all about this. Production quality is top notch too, I love it. Thank you so much for taking risks on niche content like this!!! Very cool

The fact that you uploaded this the DAY I finalized my changeling's backstory. They're one of the "switched with a human baby" ones, and was found out when they went to help the local blacksmith and touched pure iron for the first time. They were then banished in a very traumatic incident given that they didn't even know that they were one. There's a whole lot more details, but that's the basics of it. I'm also going with classic fae rules so this changeling can't lie. They don't have the whole gift stuff though because I imagine that's a societal thing, not instinctual. I'm so excited for session one next week

This seems perfect book to have a Jim Henson Labyrinth style campaign

“For as long as the players can keep their Saturday mornings open-“ I’m dying, too real😂

Me: Gotta prep D&D! No time to lose Ginny: New video 😇 Me: Yeah, okay, I'll watch it later, really gotta prep Ginny: It's about Fey... Dark Fey Me: ... Well, I can just improvise the next session I guess

Considering how early I see Christmas crap, you are perfectly okay delving into Halloween late August.

I played a Satyr Hexblade Warlock named Sweetpea who's backstory was that she was a regular goat that got was kept in the feast hall of the Countess of County Faire (A feywild infused district in the city setting my group homebrewed) and when the Countess needed some champions to do stuff for her she turned her into a sentient Satyr Hexblade Warlock, she only wishes to return to the peaceful life of just being a goat.

"... it's always October in my heart!" That made me smile so much! I worked at the local Renaissance Faire for the first time on the weekends last July, and found out that the same place also does Halloween stuff in October. I've been eagerly awaiting the chance to go back and dress up again for another month!

I'm playing a fey warlock of the seelie court, there's not much content I've seen based on that unseelie seems to be the one with all the content and lore. Peeps love their dark faeries. Also I tend to picture the characters from the Dresden files wile playing.

As someone who was obsessed with The Spiderwick Chronicles as a kid, I am definitely an enjoyer of dark fey stories.

Man, that bear cosplay was spot-on.

My daughter was watching this in the living room , too hot to go outside , as soon as she saw your shirt. She yelled. " it's officially Halloween Season." Another great post , thank you. End of Summer mermaid lament ? Please ?

Making a pact with a dark Fey where all I get in return is a full campaign DM’d by Ginny.

I would recommend Coraline for inspiration as well. It is a PERFECT example of dark fantasy.

wait no wayyyy, I was literally just talking about our new heavily fey centered campaign!!

I have been waiting for spooky season all year. This is close enough to start putting Halloween decorations up. And leaving them there until next year. Or whenever.

My favorite part of the fey is the sheer alienness of the fey in folklore. In particular the idea that they have a bunch of social rules and even laws of nature that they take very seriously which the human characters don’t understand

This is a world-building element I need. A previous campaign that went epic-level saved an entire world from sliding into the Abyss after it was pretty far gone. Then they left. So with nations gone and populations decimated... now what? A world ripe for the feywild, with leftover lurking terrors and civilizations few and far between.

Playing in a game completely shadow realm based does sound highly appealing to me. I enjoy the combination of mystical fey and dark less "pleasant" aspects that come across as sorta horror based. I very much enjoy giving my dms room to completely terrorize my characters, and I also enjoy being surprised with backstory things and this setting seems to naturally lean pretty heavily into aspects that could do that.

I've been running a dark fae campaign for quite some time now. It's a vibe. I love the creative liberties you can take in the Faewild, the Dreamlands, and the Plane of Shadow--and fae let you play in all of them!

I was in a session yesterday and found myself needing to tell a folklore tale of my people. I started telling this dark, sad story… something of a warning used to keep children on the path, something turned into plays and theatre. I couldn’t remember where the story had come from and I didn’t get it 100% the same, but I just realized I told the story of Kenna Talward!!

This would be a perfect setting fot a revenant who was "rewarmed" because a fey queen ordered his farm destroyed. As a revenant he is driven to kill his murderer's and relentlessly stalks them, the stronger ones can posses other people or fresh bodies when desperate, but to their killers they will always look just like they did when they died. My fascination playing undead has a strong grip lately lol.

THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT MY NEXT CAMPAIGN IS ABOUT AAAGH

I've actually been DYING to play in a game heavily inspired and influenced by fairytales. If you read the original stories, you know how messed up they truly are. Perfect setting for a D&D campaign!

My party is halfway through Wild beyond the Witchlight, they're buying a lot into the fey theme so I think this adventure is right for them !

Speaking of Kobold Press, Courts of the Shadow Fey is absolutely amazing!

And... sold. The book is now on its way to be on my shelf... Kobold Press does great stuff. :: Happy Days::

My friend is playing a changeling and it's SO COOL

Your characters are so interesting! Your videos have definitely helped me flesh out the backstories I wrote for my characters, but I’ve still got a lot of room for improvement. Thanks for all the wonderful inspiration!

Always on the lookout for good D&D horror content.

This is helpful - I’m newish to DnD and playing a Fey warlock

I absolutely **adore** the casual bodyhorror in this --- this might be the first time I pick up a campaign setting for 5E rather than build my own!

I just had an idea for a Fey Villian for my spelljammer campaign, basically a corrupted Dryad character who wants to spread nature, that being overwhelming plant life across the systems. She basically has her Dryad Tree being a living ship. She is linked to it and when the humans of her planet transformed her tree Into a ship it also twisted the will of the Dryad causing her to engulf her planet in vines and overgrowth until all humans were extinct. But now she goes around to other planets and plants seeds so that other Dryad's can wage war against humanity for their over expansion and destruction of nature. One of my PCs was even magically charmed and forced to serve in her army for 3 years and now, the spell has been broken and he is lost in the Astral Sea, having nightmares from the things he did while under her control. The villian herself has turned from a dryad Into more of an evil goddesses of wrath as she gained power and influence over multiple planetoids should be a fun villain to run ^-^

"that hits a little too close to be funny" Yes ... Yes it does... We've had to move to online only, after everyone's kids are in bed, and only for a few hours every few weeks. Been like that for a few years, sadly, but we're just happy to still be going

3:32 Me, wearing my camp half-blood t-shirt: shadow travel :)

The Fey play a large role in my campaign world, but unfortunately for those that travel in my world the Dark Fey are the ones they tend to encounter and learn to be fear the most, from Unseelie Nymphs to Fey mistaken for demon and devils …

Ohh I just started a very short campaign with the Tome of beast as my main source of inspiration. Shadow fey are so fun. My party is trying to remove the moon king for his crumbling seat of power. During a grand masquerade ball in the overlapp between the shadowfell and the feywild.

OMG Ginny!!! A Warlock, a Barbarian, a Druid and a Cleric, and I LOVE the new Classes/Subclasses!!! 🤩 I absolutely ADORE the Shadowrealm/Feywild like you do!!! What a great idea for a Campaign!!! 😍

If the DM wanted to use just the campaign setting from them and not the lineages. You could use already printed ones. Dhampir, Shifter, Custom Lineage comes to mind.

Literally JUST created a faction tasked with collecting memories for the Raven Queen 😬😬😬... And made one of my PCs a member of this organization

I really love how deceptive fey can be. Even to experienced players who should know better, it's hard to make yourself think of them as every bit as dangerous as something like a fiend. They're unpredictable, which makes them even more interesting as villains. I'm ruminating on a campaign where the BBEG is an archfey, whose whole gimmick is that she gives luck and lavish gifts to those that adore her, but always bends the results to her own ends. It should make the party very suspicious of everything that seems like good luck or good loot, though not before a few nasty surprises teach them that lesson! It's got to be very unsettling to have a enemy that makes everything beautiful instead of setting things on fire.

Your characters always have such compelling and well-thought out backstories. I am SO invested in Kenna’s arc! I want to see this campaign played out!

Onyxclaw got my head spinning with ideas. I now need to make a shadow ranger or druid.

The T-shirt made me smile.. my blind butt had to pause the video and zoom in to see what it was but then a smiled even bigger. Also this was a cool video keep up the nice work

"Yeah don´t trust a fae trust me instead . I am sure we can come to a advantageous agreement for us both. The only think you have to do is so sign these contract papers." My Tiefling Warlock in the City close to wood with a portal to the faewild.

You had me at dark occult.

If I had someone like you around, D&D would be worth setting aside time to play. Your enthusiasm is infectious. I'd ask why you have to live so far away, but I wouldn't inflict DC-area weather (and traffic) on my worst enemy.

Ngl, this is a really great atmospheric premise. The characters are all creative and fit the setting, and their backstory is deeply tied to it.

Fey are my favorite part of DnD. I’m gonna enjoy this video so much!!!!

This conveniently dropped right when I was going to start planning my first campaign, about a faerie realm actively being corrupted by darkness (and the players have to find the source).

My favourite character is a tiefling bard that stumbled into a few crossing. During his time there, he was transformed into a hexblood and was infused with wild magic. All of his spells have a fey flavour and his attention is mercurial.

"Always October in my heart!" YES!!! Let's get SPOOKY!!

This book seems really cool to me as my homebrew setting has seen a lot of bleeding between the Shadowfell and Feywilds into the Material Plane. I run a grimdark game and folklore-style horror is something I hope my party can get invested in. I bet this book would be an awesome resource!

Whenever I see Fae in a game I'm always tempted to just like swat them and go "Trust me. This is easier then anything they had to say."

This new Shadow Ginny is terrifying and intriguing!

Fey creatures are my favorite. Changeling the Dreaming and Household are two(very good in my humble opinion) fey themed rpgs that are worth to give a try.

I am a male that usually does not comment on make up at all, but that hair color and lipstick combination is fire 🔥super cool aesthetic look

Boy am I late to the party, but this’ll be an excellent resource for my own campaign that I’m planning! I’m going to run a homebrew Strixhaven campaign with a Hag as the BBEG, where traces of her influence are felt here and there, but she’s no pushover.

I'm planning a game in the Grim Hollow setting. The first tier of the game will be in a woodland village overrun with fey stuff. Plan for tier two way to bring the players in conflict with a court of vampires, but if they players decided to abandon the material plan to hang out in a grim version of the feywild I'd be cool with that too.

I'd love to see more content about the Shadow realm. I'm running a solo campaign in the Shadow court right now as a side quest between the two halves of Out of the Abyss. The player, a drow nature cleric of Eilistraee who started as a drider, has travelled to the courts to ask the moonlit king to make Durendil the Quaggoth's delusion of being an Elven prince real.

Yes Ginny! Looks to be an awesome vid!

I just ordered those two books, plus courts of the shadow fry and shadows of the dusk queen, I’m going to build a dark fantasy adventure with those for my friends lol

13:03 I'm surprised you built an entire party and only put *a* fey in it, one, singular. Very impressed at your self restraint =)

I think it would be cool if you did a campaign or two, although my opinion probably doesn’t matter much but i think that it might be worth a mention

I must say that your timing is amazing! I've just finished GMing first part of my scenario (first adventure written by myself) with fey vibes, but more cute, colorfull and friendly fey 🦄

Ooh! I can see why Kobold Press are keen to work with you. I love the way your mind works. I think it would be brilliant to play the campaign you've described, but I'm currently without a group. (Yes : several bags of new dice and no place to roll. 😥)

Definitely going to pick up these books and run some shadow adventures. Actually spent all day yesterday--when I should have been working on my campaign timeline--brainstorming and jotting down notes for adventures. Oh, yeah. I'm going to steal Aravni. I've been itching to run a drama/intrigue campaign in a court setting, and she gave me a great jumping-off inspiration--a character struggling between her desire to do good by helping the heroes and her desire to increase her and her family's standing in the court by screwing the heroes over. Actually, Krix gave me another bit of inspiration: when you mentioned him feeding on shadows, I got this image in my head of a character pouncing on someone's shadow and ripping chunks out of it with his teeth, literally eating it. That's led to some interesting places. (What does a shadow screaming in terror and agony sound like? I figure it's a faint, whispery sort of sound, but intense. Like water dripping when you're trying to sleep: you don't hear it at first, but once you do, you can't stop hearing it.) So thanks, Ginny. You're an inspiration! 🙂

I would pay good money to watch Ginny DM a live-play campaign

Oh I would kill to play a campaign with you. I love your videos I've watched many of your videos and I'm obsessed. I'm a newbie so I know with all of your experience you would be able to mold me into a good player and with both our imaginations we would have a blast. Keep up the great work Ginny

This is a genius way to promo a book!

So glad I recently found this channel, rpg gold, thanks

How about... Dark-Eyed 👀 Children? 🤣 the subtle F-💣 drop caught me off guard 🤣 Appreciate you leaving it in.

That skeletons top is fantastic ☺️

This is a ridiculoulsy good advertisement for the book. I don't know that I have ever been so tempted to buy a sponsored product before!

I love this style of video! I'm a big fan of your character creation videos, but this type definitely scratches that same itch but on a grander scale. Big fan!

Probably not entirely in the Shadowfel, but I could see a lot of a campaign happening there. I just living jaunts to the Abyss, the City of Brass, or the Deep Ethereal too much to leave those out.

I love the idea of using the Fair folk as horror antagonists. I have ran a few Call of Cthulhu games with that concept.

Kobold Press better have paid you well for this video girlie, great job

Play in the shadow plane? Absolutely! Love dark fey, Unseelie court!

Nice timing on this video! I just started in a campaign last night and the character I made is a Shadar-Kai Shadow Sorcerer. Seems like he would do well in your campaign, too!

I don't know how i missed this gem from you, Ginny. Always loved the fey since i was gifted a whole book about all sorts of fey, both Seelie and Unseelie. Very nuanced and exciting characters you deliver on top of this great vid.

It might be rather entertaining to see a few D&D play sessions with you and your group .

would absolutely play in a campaign in this setting. Non standard settings are the best.

Oh I can see Aravni being sent on adventure because someone of her own family is missing and all evidence of recents sabotage of shadow roads points at that missing member of the Eventide... 😍 Some juicy noble drama with dark magic involved And I imagine Kenna have made a bargain with a Hag in disguise...after losing her child she asks to forget it so she would weep no more...so the Hag took away the memory, but not the pain ...I feel like I'm a bad person now 😔

Very excited for this. There's a BIG fey component to the current campaign I'm running (one of the PCs is a changeling and I really wanna give her the opportunity to do lots of fae stuff) but as much as I love everything Fae it always seems yo be the thing I struggle most with for creating adventures around, so I'm certain this video will give me some ideas and get me in the spirit!

This is a really cool video idea. Nice job, Ginny

I am half here for the videos half here for the your style. Your hair color and how well it looks on you are just awesome. Super jelly.

"I know its sept but its always oct in my heart" If that isnt a mood, idk what is

This was such a wonderful insight into your process. You must be a amazing GM. I love Dark Fairy Tales, and Mythology. I would love to DM something dark and twisted. Just have to be careful and know my players lines and veils. Though I be but a petty dabbler in the dark arts with only a few One shots (To give the reg DM a break) under my belt.

I just recently started watching you im so glad i jumped on the bandwagon. Ty for the amazing content and tips throughout! Its helped me to start getting into DMing and hopefully creating a world and adventure my friends will love!

This is basically the shadow fell but someone actually made a book on it. Very cool!