I was looking back through older campaign materials from KAP3 and KAP4 games that are over a decade old - and I noticed a somewhat striking pattern in the faerie encounters I used, or wrote up independently. While there are plenty of dangerous encounters with monsters, large black dogs, and fearsomely skilled faerie knights there is also a definite pattern towards faerie who essentially act as light comic relief or very odd variations on the otherwise mundane.

To wit:

The beaver guarding the spring and warning of "Much gnashing of teeth" in Adventure of the Poisoned Lake
Jousting at a bridge against knights mounted on goats - clippety clop
Facing clockwork men-at-arms
Meeting knights who turn out to be large amphibians
Goblin archers walking on the ceiling of a Great Hall -- this encounter is infamous among the one group of players I know
A river ferry being run by a troll - who doesn't accept money to pay for the fare


These are mainly small encounters in the overall arc of the quest. But this is generally the lighter side of Faerie. Do other GMs use Faerie creatures or encounters in this regard much, or is whimsical encounters something to be avoided?

Hm lets see.
I have met the following:
- A fearie dragon (with butterfly wings) that loves apple pie. At times a trickster, but in the end a prince in the Seelie court.
- A leprechaun that drinks irish whiskey. It could fit a glass with a whole bottle of whiskey, but still have only a 2 fingers shot. The knights recued him from a group of louts that had fed him drunk and captured him.

To be honest, fearies are very good to lighten the spirit of a quest and add humor in it. They are a good way to balance a serious quest with some lighthearted frivolity.

I try top run a gritty, straight-faced, Game of Thrones kind of game, so, no, I don't use Faeries in that way (but I have in the past, when running more of Variety Hall kind of games). Faeries are dangerous, unpredictable and vicious, and encounters with the Fey are rare - and tend to leave their marks on Traits, Passions ans Stats.

There is no right or wrong, I think. It about what kind of game you want. You can run KAP in a humorous, silly tone - or very grim. Or both.

I'm on my second KPA campaign, and in each the PC's encountered a fairy ring during their initial bear hunt.

They have decided that Fairy is interesting, humorous, dangerous, and to be avoided if at all possible because NOTHING is ever as it seems with them.

As an example, one of my PCK has his son be given a gift by a fae. The fae asked the PCK if the son could receive the gift and if he would accept what comes with the gift. The PCK forgot to ask what the gift comes with, so in a few years time I will spring that detail upon them. (wicked grin)