The roguish spirit known commonly by the names Robin Goodfellow & Puck is a recurring NPC/encounter to drop into your games if you want to add a small dash of fae mischief.

Made as part of the Fae Jam 2021

Either read all the details on this post, or click on the image below to download everything in a tidy, useable, one-page spread.

Robin Goodfellow and Puck are the dual personas of a knavish fae spirit who delights in duping and hoodwinking mortal folk. The twin forms are as two sides of a spinning coin: Sharing core personality traits, temperaments and abilities, but with differing expressions.

Capabilities shared between Robin Goodfellow and Puck

• May move unseen and unheard through brush, thicket and brook.
• Sprite of foot and quick as a hare.
• Can beguile mortals with clever illusions of sight and sound. 3/day
• Alters their size nimbly with no care for the laws of nature. 3/day
• Instantly shifts the form or shape of either themself or a mortal. The shift back can be freely made. 1/day

Robin Goodfellow

Known as: Robin Goodfellow, Robin, Old Hat
Character: ultimately harmless, cheeky, jester, moralising reformer
Voice: chuckle, guffaw, bark, hesitating, rasping
Expression: composed, frowned
Movement: amble, totter, shrug
Preferred tribute: blueberry mead, fruitcake, gingerbread
Dislikes: infidelity, hypocrisy, silver, drums, bells

Encounters with Robin Goodfellow

1. Hides within a drink/potion/body of water before jumping out to surprise a mortal.
2. Shifts to become a magnificent mare, alluring and exciting any nearby stallions.
3. Creates misleading signs, tracks or spoors along his target’s path.
4. Offers a challenge of a one mile race. The loser puts on a feast for the winner.
5. Creates an illusion to make nearby birds sound like wolves.
6. Until properly tributed, target will begin growing a goats tail and horns.

Puck

Known as: Puck, Hobgoblin, Sweet Puck
Character: relatively harmless, rude, scoundrel, tormentor
Voice: chortle, sneer, snarl, sudden, cheeping
Expression: twitched, glared
Movement: prance, strut, snap
Preferred tribute: ice-wine, nettle soup, marzipan
Dislikes: flattery, sentimentality, gemstones, flutes, harps

Encounters with Puck

1. Pretends to be a stump or furniture, slipping away when sat upon.
2. Becomes a bristly and plump yet distracted wild boar, shifting to his real form only once hunted, killed and roasted.
3. Casts borrowed magic to lull his target into a magical sleep at an inopportune moment.
4. Offers a competition: most valuable object stolen in the next hour wins. The winner keeps all entries.
5. Creates an illusion to make animal faeces look like edible mushrooms.
6. Until properly tributed, target will have the head of a donkey.

Download the whole thing here.

Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearnèd luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long.
Else the Puck a liar call.
So good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.