The sun rises over the Superstition Mountains every morning, reassuring some 240 Phoenix residents that life is still theirs, however hard. The folks here all came chasing the same promise of freedom and opportunity, and they all found the Arizona desert to be hotter than they’d been told, more dangerous and desolate than they’d imagined. Yet they remain, because this scrabble of land is theirs, and together they’ll build something. An oasis, not just from the dust and sand, but from the pain and failure of their past. All they need is luck. A lot of it.
Superstitions is a roleplaying game set in a burgeoning town in the legendary “Wild West” of the United States, circa 1870. The settlers, though admirably optimistic and laughably superstitious, are entirely unaware they share their new home with hundreds of fae: Magical creatures who stay out of sight but nonetheless steer the course of human events out here.
There is no game master. Each player will play one human character as well as one fae who brings fortune and trial to another player’s character. Effectively, you are each a game master for one of your friends.
Main Street
First, we’ll flesh out the town and the folks who make it home. Take turns naming one of the human characters below and answering their questions. At this point, we’re just giving life to the town: You are not choosing which character you will play. Continue until all humans from the list have been fleshed out and all questions have been answered.
Human Population
Sheriff
What are the major threats to law and order around here?
Who, if anyone, pays you to have the law bent in their favor?
Saloon Owner
What services does the saloon offer?
Who is forbidden from setting foot inside the establishment, and why?
Gunslinger
Someone is coming looking for you. Who and why?
Besides yourself, what one person in town would you kill to protect?
Gambler
You left the big city back East running from something. What is it?
You own someone in town big-time, money or favor. Who and why?
Prospector
You found something inexplicable out in the hills. What was it?
You harbor a deep hatred for one person in town. Who and why?
Mayor
Generally, what is your plan for how the town will make it big?
Who is your major obstacle to riding this town to fame and wealth?
Rancher
Describe your land, or your family, or your gang.
Who is the one ally you can count on in town when things get rough?
Preacher
What are the greatest moral perils in this town?
Who is the person most responsible for the perditious state of the town?
Outlaw
Describe your gang and what trouble you’re up to.
Who do you just know you’re going to have to kill one of these days?
Pinkerton Agent
You’re on the trail of a major case from back East. What is it?
Who in town do you suspect knows more than they seem?
Reckoning
Next, each player selects one of these character to roleplay and adds some more detail to them:
Where are you from? How does that make you different from everyone else?
What difficult immediate goal are you striving for?
What is your relationship to the other players’ human characters?
Choose three separate adjectives that describe your character. Try to find two that support the tropes of the Western genre (tough-as-nails, big’un) and one that challenges stereotypes (highly literate).
We All Got Troubles
Each player will now pick a fae. There is a small band of these fae living around town, and they’ve attached themselves to the settlers, for better or worse. Your fae is intimately connected to the human character of the player to your RIGHT. Consider that human’s goal and pick the fae whose style seems like it’ll be fun to play and will create a lot of interactions and story opportunities for that human:
Fae
Imps: Fiery creatures who feed on human emotions and can enhance them when they choose. Imps want to make humans feel as often and as deeply as possible. All thing being equal, positive emotions are better than negative ones, but any strong emotion is better than any weak one. AKA Shulawitsi (Zuni) and Kokosori (Hopi)
Brownies: Child-sized people who are value home and family. Brownies are able to perform magic on small objects: levitation, charms. They desire humans to be social, happy and loyal. They often attempt elaborate hoaxes to teach humans to honor their blood. They dislike conflicts and will do anything to stop a feud between close friends and family. AKA Yunwi Tsunsdi' (Cherokee “Little People”) 
Pixies: Winged fae, sometimes appearing as grasshoppers or locust. Pixies are highly magical and can create illusions and enchant people and places. They value power and exploit human fears by blackmailing them and even kidnapping their children. Pixies will grant favors to humans who supplicate themselves and bring them treats and baubels. AKA Mialuka (Osage “Wild People”)
Dryads: A lithe race of tree dwellers with a rapport for nature. Dryads can speak with and charm animals, as well as plants. Dryads value beauty and conservation. They like humans who respect nature and treat it with reverence and will become angry at careless and destructive humans. AKA Canotila (Souix)
Dwarves: A squat, gnarly group who live under the rocks of riverbanks and in caves. Dwarves are a protective lot, defending with great vigor and loyalty any they consider kin. They regularly adopt humans who demonstrate loyalty and will bring harm upon anyone who threatens them. Dwarves can move and reshape earth and stone, and can whisper into the minds of humans. AKA Coblynau (Welsh) and Gahongas (Iroquois)
Trolls: A strong race who appear as insects, badgers and raccoons, Trolls prize daring and valor. They raid other fae and human stockpiles, and they enjoy the company of soldiers, outlaws, and other brave and active individuals. They inspire unusual strength and determination in humans, sometimes to great ends, and others to foolish ends, so long as a risk is faced head on. They leave prizes (which they stole to begin with) in hard to reach places for those who might find them.
Gremlins: Lanky fae with skin like tree bark who nest in rocky outcroppings. Gremlins are lazy and generally irritable, focusing their dysphoria on the loudest and most active things around. Lately, that’s been humans, but most especially, human contraptions. Gremlins cause malfunctions in human objects. They have a soft spot for the young, and are said to help shush babies to sleep. AKA Mannegishi (Cree)
Sprites: A wild race that flies without wings, sometimes appearing as fireflies or as fish in streams. They have power over air and water, and can generate small sparks of electricity. Sprites have a fascination with clothing; they steal human clothing when it is left alone, and they are beholden to humans who steal their own clothing. Sprites value status, and often compete with each other to win their chosen humans fame or positions of power. AKA Lumpeguin (Passamaquoddy)
Bogles: Cavern dwellers who disguise themselves as common objects. If you touch a bogle, it can control your actions, giving you a goal you feel compelled to achieve. While humans are never aware of this command, the implanted desire may linger long after contact has ended, depending on the length of exposure and how closely the idea aligns with their own. Bogles enjoy mischief but truly value attention. The more humans they can get talking about their shenanigans, the better. AKA Goblins (European)
Guess my Name
Give your fae character a name and three adjectives that describe what it cares about and how it behaves (gambler, romantic, flamboyant).
Seeing the Impossible
The fae are all wee folk, between 1” and 24” tall, mostly about 4”. Humans are entirely unaware of the fae living among them. They are either invisible or appear to be small animals, shadowy or distant people. Exceptional individuals—or those who are very drunk or high—may be able to get glimpses of their true nature in unusual situations.
Tall Tales
You are the personal GM for the player on your right. It is your right and responsibility to give your neighbor’s character trouble: challenges she can overcome, tasks to botch, NPCs to fight and flirt and finagle with. To measure when things need to get worse for her, and when she’s earned the right to reach her goals. And—because doing that while you play your own character isn’t enough—you will do so in the style of your chosen fae. If you’re a Bogle, trick and prank your assigned human. Test her strength of mind and character. If you’re a Troll, inspire them to great heroism, even if others would call it plain foolishness.
Your goal as a fae is to encourage great things to happen, to inspire the events people will talk about, and write about, and sing about for years to come. To this end, your fae has the power to influence any character that doesn’t belong to another player. You can roleplay these non-player characters whenever and however you like. Your fae also has the power to make things happen in the physical world. You might cause a river bed to dry up, or a caravan of frightened immigrants to arrive, or a fire to break out. You can do anything you want, except for these golden exceptions:
§ Your fae can never interact with your own character, indirectly or otherwise. Your fae has precisely no interest in your human and refuses to help them, hurt them, or even acknowledge their existence.
For instance, my fae may cause bandits to find all our human characters while they’re on the trail together, but he can neither cause the bandits to shoot my character nor my character to find money, weapons or clues on the bandits if we defeat them. I cannot have the bandits address my character, nor can I have them respond to her. Another players’ fae could do any or all of these things, but mine cannot.
§ Your fae can never undo another fae’s magic. Once a player has narrated an event or roleplayed a character, that thing happened. It’s real and it’s too late for anyone to go back and prevent it. You cannot contradict what another fae states. That means that anything you say as your fae is immediately and irrevocably true, and no other player can falsify it. It is possible to end an ongoing effect or to avert an impending result, though it is considered very rude among fae to meddle in one another’s magic and should not be done without that fae’s consent.
For example, your fae might cause my character’s mother to fall gravely ill. My fae does not have the power to go back in time and keep my mother well. He could allow her to recover from the illness after some time (preferably after one of our human’s has achieved something notable in an effort to help cure her), but if he did this in spite of your fae not wanting that to happen, it would be very rude indeed. Just so we’re clear, despite couching this in terms of the fae characters, I’m really talking about us, the players: Don’t piss on my parade.
Strange and Desperate Times
The desert is a strange and alien place for the new inhabitants of Phoenix, and while they don’t have much education, they know life won’t be easy here. Most work hard to build a safer future for themselves and their children, but few can resist the silly little rituals said to bring us luck and fortune. As it happens, fae love that sort of thing.
Whenever a human needs supernatural assistance, they can observe a superstition. That will raise the attention of the fae who’s been watching them as well any fae who happen to be in the area. Your human character may silently (or vocally) beseech the fae for help and if the player to your left doesn’t choose to grant that wish, another player must grant that wish, either through their own fae or through an unknown fae of any type. BUT, they needn’t grant the wish as expected and there will most definitely be a price that pleases the fae who grants it. Fae love poetry, so they will always try to grant the wish in a way that flows thematically from the superstition that was observed, and the more devious ones try to add irony to the granting.