City of Thieves- A Heistbox System- Part 1

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I'm going to be posting details about the setting and rules I'm creating for my Heistbox game.

(For details on what a Heistbox is, check aforementioned previous post)

To start off, I'm going to list the game systems I considered before settling on creating my own and a brief reason why I didn't go for those.

FATE (Strange or Core): Narrative, it placed equal emphasis on social, mental, and physical conflicts but didn't do anything special to support the Heist structure. I also didn't want as much emphasis on physical conflicts.

As I've mentioned before, my design philosophy includes the idea that the amount of rules in a game shapes the nature of play. If a game says it is about tense intrigue in an imperial court but only includes detailed rules for combat and leaves intrigue as a set of simple rolls, then the game is really about combat.

I also looked at the Powered by the Apocalypse engine which would have been fairly easy to adapt, just by writing some custom playbooks, and maybe some custom rules. However, I wanted to focus on the structure portrayed in some heist movies, with game rules simulating the cuts between the planning stage and the actual heist. I thought this would be too difficult to do in PBtA.

GUMSHOE has a pair of major issues. It solves one of the problems of the PBtA engine in that the preparedness mechanic could be modified to simulate the narrative structure mentioned above. The downside that GUMSHOE and, in fact, all of the systems listed so far, do not have a complicated set of social mechanics that replicate real-life social systems, which one of my players professed interest in. The second issue is the idea of spends. GUMSHOE is primarily based around the expenditure of points for bonuses or simply to gain certain information. While this plays in nicely to the tactical side of things, I feel as though my current system can do timing based tension better. Also I have concerns about balancing the economy when shifting from the investigation narrative structure to the heist structure.

The Leverage RPG which uses the Cortex Plus system was recommended as a system to look into for heists. While there are some interesting ideas to pull from the book, it's pretty inflexible in setting and roles. There are five roles which function something like character classes, and all of them seem pretty important for play. One of those roles is the Hacker. In a Heistbox with a rotating cast and pre-digital setting, this system just doesn't look like a good fit.

Now, for here on, I'll be describing the setting and rules, but everything here is subject to change as time goes on.

After talking to my players, I've decided on a 1920's Dieselpunk setting. World War I went on longer than in our universe, and I'm thinking that some actions during the war are responsible for less racism and sexism in the era compared to our own universe- as that's not really something I want to include in my game. In addition to the societal changes, it wouldn't be dieselpunk without some weird technology. I'm thinking of having robots programmed with punch-cards (German made-responsible for prolonging the war and keeping the Weimar Republic stable), hovercraft, and hand-held versions of Tesla's teleforce weapons (particle beam weaponry, in essence). I'm also including magic, although it won't be as big a factor in shaping the world as the new technology is.

The basic resolution mechanic is a Roll & Keep system similar to the one I detailed in an earlier post. The main difference is that this one uses pools of d6s. There are no 'exploding' dice, but players can re-roll against a diminishing difficulty- the main resource here is time.

Stats determine how many dice are kept and skills determine how many are rolls. I'm not sure if there is some kind of bonus for being proficient in a skill and characters base pool is determined by their kept dice, or if the rolled pool is determined by stats+skills. I'm leaning towards the latter right now.

I'm thinking of doing initiative similar to the 'slot' system seen in the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games. Players roll to mark places in the initiative order and then everyone fills them as they see fit. Normally everyone must take a turn every round, but I'm thinking of adding in the ability to take what I'm calling 'focus rounds' where a single character can take as many turns in a round as their teammates allow. This would be limited in some way, either by cost, or just a flat once per session/heist.

The stats are:

Muscles: Violence and unsubtle physical actions

Fingers: Daring and subtle physical actions, technical skills

Brains: Knowledge, Planning and Observation

It: Sex Appeal, Social Skills & Social Connections

And here's what I'm thinking for skills:

Muscles:

Shooting

Hand to Hand

Athletics

Intimidate

Resist

Explosives

Fingers:

Driving

Cat Burglary

Palming

Sneak

Lockpicking

Build

Brains:

Mysticism

Planning

Lookout

Safecracking

Appraisal

Forgery

It:

Connections

Size up

Con Schemes

Impress

Manipulate

Convince

As you can see, they're divided up by their governing stat. I wanted to keep the number of skills under each stat equal so no stat is immediately better than others.

In regards to the stats, I've gone for more of an abstract take on them, partially in order to keep them all relevant, but also to cut down on the number of stats. Taken with the small skill list, it should make character creation simple and fast. I wanted fast character creation, to not slow down play too much with the rotating cast. One of my players wanted simple character creation because she sometimes get bogged down with choices in a game like Eclipse Phase or D&D. I'm looking to throw together skill packages in order to streamline character creation even further. Some of these would act as classes, and some would be smaller amounts of skills to piece together in a character. As you might imagine, I'm looking to make character creation a points-buy affair.

So that's most of what I have so far. I have some other ideas, but nothing cohesive right now. Hopefully I'll be able to post more about this soon.  

The Heist Structure and Heistboxes

I can think of three major “plot” structures for an individual game off the top of my head. I put plot in quotations because I think a properly run game shouldn't have plot so much as theme, but then again, I'm a big fan of sandboxes.

The three structures are:

Dungeon Crawl- the core components are combat, exploring and retrieving loot

Investigation- exploration comes in the form of information and social networks and the”loot” takes the form of clues integral to the investigation

The third is a blend of the two styles, the Heist.

Heists usually deemphasize combat and emphasize loot. Like in an Investigation, exploration takes place outside of the “dungeon”. To put it another way, while exploration in a dungeon crawl takes place in the dungeon, with the players/characters slowly learning the lay of the land as they travel through it, a heist typically involves the players/characters getting access to a map of the location before venturing inside. The primary challenge is obtaining information about the location and then using it to plan a route or method of metaphorical attack.

The three styles exist on a spectrum of method to goal oriented, with dungeon crawls being primarily method oriented, investigations blending the two, and heists taking the position on the far right of the spectrum as mainly goal oriented. As an aside, assassinations are structured similarly to a heist, but the end goal is someones death.

What does all this junk mean for a game?

Handouts are important. Especially maps. This gives players information they can all see and reference while planning. As part of this, an easily accessible reference to character abilities is very useful.

Improvisation is back loaded on the part of the GM. The guts of the heist shouldn't be thought up on the spot, as it may make it difficult for the players to generate a plan. Complications and antagonist reactions to the plan may be improvised.

Speaking of complications, in other pieces of fiction, the more the audience knows about the plan of a heist, the more things are going to go wrong. To make this a gameable concept, the more the GM knows about the plan, the more complications are going to take place. This could take the form of a token economy, players buy information and the GM uses those tokens to buy complications, possibly in the form of a random roll table.

Heists usually have a complication. Everything can't go smoothly for the players, or there is not challenge during the heist itself. To offset this, consider the concept of the Tilt from Fiasco. While Fiasco games don't usually follow the narrative structure of the heist, midway through the game, it introduces a complication called the Tilt. This is something that helps turn everything on its head. These are short phrases like “something valuable catches fire” or “magnificent self destruction” that guide the players into setting up a situation where everything goes wrong.

Another concept that Fiasco embraces is the flashback. It doesn't come up much in the rules of other games, but it is a perfect way for a character to say “I saw this coming” while keeping the player in suspense.

The GUMSHOE system, with it's concept of the preparedness skill could easily translate into a set-up for flashbacks.

Action scenes aren't as important in the heist model. Think of the Thief video games, combat is dangerous and loud. If you have to fight, you want the advantage over your opponent. So while you could run a heist game using something combat focused like D&D, games focused on investigation might be a better choice as they hopefully inject more detail into the use of skills.

Now that we know what a heist is, what is a heistbox?

Well, like a sandbox game, it is player focused. It is similar to the ocean-centric saltbox in that it is a sub-type of the sandbox structure. A heistbox is a game structure focused around player devised/selected heists and/or games with the heist structure.

In my regular game right now, I'm running a sandbox in the hexcrawl style, where wilderness is traversed much in the same way as a dungeon crawl. I chose this style because it allowed players to drop in and out without disruption to the overall flow of the game. A major facet of the game is that the players wanted to create an organization, in this case, a guild of adventurers.

A heistbox is the perfect setup for this. There are multiple examples in fiction and real life of criminal organizations: the crew from a heist movie like Ocean's 11, organized crime families, gangs, thieves guilds, and so on.

The framework of a criminal gang also makes it easy for players to slip in and out of the game. The idea of a gang comes with the implication that there is a headquarters, or hideout. My previous sandbox game divided the headquarters role between the town and a central inn/tavern. Town was a safe area, and characters couldn't come to harm during sessions where they weren't present. During play, the characters always started, and planned their activities for the session from this central tavern, it also was the location where they gained information about local events and interacted with some recurring NPCs. My thought for the Heistbox was to combine the two. Since the action of the other sandbox took place in the area surrounding the city, it made sense that the city would be a safe zone. Conversely, the action of the Heistbox takes place entirely in a single city so they cannot be safe there. Additionally, when I spoke to my players about the idea of the Heistbox, one of the notes I made was that they were very invested in the idea of a hideout, and one of them even mentioned the potential for raids. So safety is not an option for anyone present at a session. As for the other players, as thieves and rogues of all kinds, I would imagine personal safehouses and boltholes would be a common investment, making their safety a moot point.

In my previous Sandbox, I made use of the faction turn from the Sine Nomine game line. In between sessions, I used rules to simulate the power struggles of the various factions of the region in order to generate content. While interested, it was time consuming. For the Heistbox, I want to create a set of tools to easily generate Heists, especially at the player's direction. An example of this would be, one player saying “I want to pull a bank heist” or “I want to rob a mafia poker game”. While I could try to predict the wants of my players, or have them wait a session before embarking on the heist of their design, it would be best to have the tools available to generate these situations on the fly. The second system paralleling the faction turn would be something to simulate the power struggles of the local factions. My current thoughts are to create two 'currencies' Reputation and Heat. Law enforcement factions distribute their Heat among the various criminal factions, making jobs harder for them. Criminal factions gain Reputation at the expense of the other factions (representing the transfer of power and standing in the criminal underworld) for their jobs. Jobs would be simple, one chosen per 'faction turn' and from a specific list of general jobs, like burglary, heists, protection rackets, or smuggling. Law enforcement would then distribute Heat and the factions would make a single roll. The players would also interact with this subsystem as a group, build/losing Heat and Reputation based on their performance which would apply to the other factions before they took their turns. These are just my current thoughts and it's likely to change as time goes on.

As I develop the setting and rules for the Heistbox, I'll try to post them here so you get a glimpse of what I'm building in real time, and my process for designing them.

Further Reading/Listening:

Writing Excuses Podcast: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/06/17/writing-excuses-7-25-writing-capers/

Transcription of linked episoder: http://wetranscripts.livejournal.com/60653.html

Hollowpoint: http://www.vsca.ca/Hollowpoint/

Fiasco: http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/

Makers of the GUMSHOE system: http://pelgranepress.com/

Sine Nomine: http://www.sinenomine-pub.com/

Mega Monster Mash

Hello again. I'm not dead, I've just been busy. When I haven't been busy, I've been working on some of my projects, but sadly don't have anything to show for it quite yet.

On the flip side, the players in my 5e game have been fighting a plethora of custom monsters. So, since they fought three of these in the last session alone, I decided to bundle them together for your enjoyment.

The Manavore originally had resistance to bludgeoning and piercing damage from non-magical weapons, but my players recommended I change it to what it is now.

I have a whole adventure based around The Pilgrim and the concept of an unexpected genre shift, hopefully, I'll get around to posting that in the near future. Pa-Ag is an Elder God (think Lovecraft) heavily themed around night. The Pilgrim is also my first attempt at a creature with legendary actions.

I've babbled enough. Here, have some monsters!

Manavore

Appearing as a floating orb in dull colours like gray or beige, these creatures feed on ambient magic. When it detects movement, it unfolds a mucously mass of bright green tendrils and narrow eyestalks that are concealed as part of the sphere shape. The creature then spits raw magical energy at it's enemies.

Medium Beast, unaligned

Armour Class 11

Hit Points 33 (3d8 +6)

Speed Fly 30ft.

STR    DEX    CON     INT   WIS CHA

10 (+0) 12(+1) 14 (+2) 4 (-3) 6 (-2) 16 (+3)

Damage Resistances bludgeoning and piercing damage from magical weapons

Condition Immunities charmed, deafened, prone

Senses blindsight 120ft., passive perception 8

Languages Understands Common but cannot speak

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Magic Resistance. The manavore has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Actions

Overload. Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 60ft/120ft., one target.

Hit: 12 (2d8+3) force damage

Walking Womb

The result of extensive research into creating a massive army quickly was the Walking Womb, a four legged construct, mostly built of glass and brass fixtures. The main body of this construct is a roughly ovoid platform with legs that look like a cross between an insect's leg and a blunted scythe blade. On the creature's back is a 7 foot tall grass tube in which a mixture of magical essence and the conjured blood of lesser fiends combine to create a degenerate and temporary Tiefling-like creature. It's legs are useless in defending itself, but it is able to spit poisonous fiendish blood at it's foes.

Medium Construct, unaligned

Armour Class 13 (Natural Armour)

Hit Points 60 (10d8 +30)

Speed 20ft.

STR      DEX CON       INT WIS   CHA

10 (+0) 12(+1) 16 (+3) 4 (-3) 6 (-2) 6 (-2)

Damage Vulnerabilities thunder, bludgeoning

Damage Resistances piercing

Damage Immunities psychic, poison

Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60ft., passive perception 8

Languages Understands Common but cannot speak

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Corrupted Conjuration. Whenever the Walking Womb starts its turn near a free space, it produces a single Infernal Simulacrum.

Actions

Caustic Ichor. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 30ft/60ftft., one target.

Hit: 5 (1d8+1) poison damage

Accelerated Growth (Recharge 6). If the Walking Womb is next to a free space, it can produce an additional Demonic Simulacrum as a bonus action.

Infernal Simulacrum

The misbegotten spawn of the Walking Wombs, these creatures are formed from demonic blood and magical essence. They are soulless, feral, and animalistic. Luckily for the world at large, they are highly unstable and only their prodigious birthrate from the Walking Wombs keeps their population up. Their appearance is similar to that of a Tiefling, save their pale, slimy skin, milk white eyes, sexless bodies, and obvious deformity.

Medium Monstrosity, Chaotic Evil

Armour Class 10

Hit Points 5 (1d8+2)

Speed 30ft.

STR      DEX   CON    INT   WIS    CHA

14 (+2) 10(+0) 14 (+2) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)

Damage Resistances fire

Senses darkvision 60ft., passive perception 8

Languages Understands Infernal but cannot speak

Challenge 0 (10 XP)

Mutations. When an Infernal Simulacrum is born, it varies from the template in some significant way, roll 1d10 and consult the table below to find out what mutation they have

1) Infernal Instability. This simulacrum is bloated with infernal ichor and will explode at the end of its turn, dealing 1d8 necrotic damage to everything within 5 ft.

2) Leathery Skin. The simulacrum has an Armour Class of 12 (Natural Armour).

3) Jagged Claws. Replace the simulacrum's Slam attack with a Claw attack which deals 4 (1d6+2). slashing damage but is otherwise identical to it's normal slam attack.

4) Stillbirth. The simulacrum dies immediately after birth.

5) Keen Mind. The Simulacrum has an intelligence score of 14 (+2) and can make a special attack (Mind Lash. Ranged Spell Attack: +4 to hit, range 20ft/40ft., one target. Hit: 3 [1d4+2] psychic damage).

6) Essence Overflow. Immediately upon birth, this simulacrum dies and creates a 15ft cone of magical energy in a direction of its choosing, causing 5 (2d8) force damage.

7) Unstable Growth. On it's first turn, the simulacrum splits into two identical copies with the Infernal Instability mutation

8) Wings. This simulacrum replaces it's movement with a Fly speed of 30ft.

9) Stinger. The simulacrum has either a large, scorpion-like tail or a massive proboscis instead of a mouth. Whatever the source, replace its Slam attack with a Sting attack which deals 4 (1d4+2). piercing damage and 2 (1d4) poison damage but is otherwise identical to it's normal slam attack.

10) Massive Mutations. Roll twice on this table, ignoring this result. Apply both results to the simulacrum.

Actions

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target.

Hit: 4 (1d4+2) bludgeoning damage

Silk Gargoyle

Created by a powerful Tiefling Wizard to protect his research, the constructs are more similar to harpies in appearance than gargoyles. They are built of soft or brittle materials like wood, bone, cloth, leather, and glass.

Medium Construct, Unaligned

Armour Class 11

Hit Points 9 (2d8)

Speed 10ft., fly 30ft.

STR     DEX    CON    INT   WIS    CHA

15 (+2) 12(+1) 11 (+0) 8 (-1) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)

Damage Vulnerabilities fire, bludgeoning

Damage Resistances piercing

Damage Immunities psychic, poison

Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60ft., passive perception 10

Languages Understands Infernal but cannot speak

Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Actions

Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target.

Hit: 4 (1d6+2) slashing damage

Flying Bodyslam. During a dash action, the Silk Gargoyle may spend a bonus action to push a single creature of size medium or smaller 5ft. away from it if the creature fails a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw.

The Pilgrim, Herald of Pa-Ag

A creature from beyond the stars which guards a site at the behest of its ineffable patron. It appears as a mass of tar-like ooze with multiple eyes. Its presence locks the site away in a demi-plane under the control of its ineffable master.

Large Aberration, Chaotic Evil

Armour Class 14 (natural armour)

Hit Points 85 (10d10 +30)

Speed 40ft., Climb 40ft.

STR       DEX    CON   INT     WIS     CHA

18 (+4) 12(+1) 16 (+3) 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 16 (+3)

Skills Stealth +7, Athletics +7, Perception +5

Saving Throws Wis +5, Con +6

Damage Immunities radiant, psychic

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage

Condition Immunity prone, charmed, frightened

Senses truesight 60ft., blindsight 30ft, passive perception 15

Languages all, Telepathy 120ft

Challenge 7 (2900 XP)

Controlled Lash. When making a Radiant Lash attack against a target withing 5ft, The Pilgrim doesn't have disadvantage.

Amorphous. The Pilgrim can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing

Psychic Scream. The Pilgrim is surround by an aura that radiates 10ft away from its body, any creature that enters this area or starts their turn in it takes 5 psychic damage.

Actions

Multiattack. The Pilgrim can make two Claw attacks or a single Radiant Lash when it takes an action.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15ft., one target.

Hit: 13 (2d8+4) slashing damage

Radiant Lash. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 60ft., one target.

Hit: 8 (1d10+3) radiant damage

Legendary Actions

The Pilgrim can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Pilgrim regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Radiant Lash. The Pilgrim makes one attack with its Radiant Lash.

Relocate (Costs 2 Actions) The Pilgrim may teleport anywhere within its demiplane, regaining 1d10+3 Hit Points when it does.

Psychic Maelstrom (Costs 3 Actions) The Pilgrim increases the size of it's psychic scream to 15ft and automatically deals 5 psychic damage to anyone caught in the radius.

5e Monster Mash: Blood Ooze

My players encountered their second custom monster in my 5e game. Again, they didn't actually fight it. Thanks to a mind controlled cultist, they were able to get around it without a fight. So, here's the Blood Ooze:

Blood Ooze

Created by the Cult of The Leech God from demonic blood and foul magics, they are frequently left around their haunts to devour intruders (and the occasional unwary acolyte). This monster's main means of attack is to wait until someone is right beside it, then strike with it's thin, blood draining pseudopod.

Medium Ooze, Chaotic Evil

Armour Class 8

Hit Points 22 (3d8 +9)

Speed 20ft, Climb 20ft

STR     DEX     CON   INT   WIS   CHA

12 (+1) 6(-2)   16 (+3) 1 (-5)   6 (-2) 2 (-4)

Skills Stealth +2

Damage Resistances acid, cold, fire

Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, prone

Senses blindsight 60ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive perception 8

Languages --

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Amorphous. The ooze can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing

Fetid Blood. If hit with a slashing weapon, everyone in a 5ft radius must make a DC 13 Constitution Saving Throw or be Poisoned for 1 hour.

False Appearance. While the ooze remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary pool of blood.

Actions

Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5ft., one target.

Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage plus the target loses 5 (1d4+3) hit points due to blood loss. The ooze then recovers hit points equal to half of the hit point loss.

Not much to say about this one. Again, mostly a monster of convenience. Also, it's pretty similar, stat-wise, to a Gray Ooze. I do particularly like the image of this ooze's pseudopod being a bloodsucking proboscis instead of an acidic bludgeon 

5e Monster Mash: Shattered Skeletons

As part of my regular 5e game, I've been creating quite a few monsters and other stat blocks. A week or two ago, my players encountered the first of my custom monsters. I've been holding off on posting the stats for these custom beasties, but since my players have already run into these, damage done, so to speak. Without further ado, I present the first of my custom 5e monsters:

Shattered Skeletons

The partially destroyed remains of an animated skeleton. They lack some their limbs and attack with the splintered and broken ends of their bony digits.

Small Undead, Lawful Evil

Armour Class 13

Hit Points 7 (2d6)

Speed 20ft

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA

10 (+0) 14(+2) 10 (+0) 6 (-2) 8 (-1) 5 (-3)

Damage Vulnerabilities bludgeoning

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned

Senses darkvision 60ft., passive Perception 9

Languages --

Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Actions

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft., one target.

Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage

Now, the Shattered Skeletons aren't too complex. I needed a stat block for the skeletal remains of medium humanoids that was CR 1/8. I tried to make them a little more interesting than “like the skeletons in the book but with less hp”. There is, however, so much you can do with low CR humanoid skeletons.

Don't worry, I promise they get more interesting (read: weirder) as time goes on.

Salt and Cod Menu

In my ongoing 5th Edition D&D campaign, the characters start each game in a tavern called the Salt and Cod. My efforts to create an atmosphere include a menu created by tavern keeper and proprietor Advi, son of Advi. I recently created a table to randomly generate the meals for the day, so as to save myself from coming up with the daily fare on the fly.

To use it, choose breakfast, lunch or dinner.
For lunch and dinner, roll d100 once for the entree and twice for the sides
For Breakfast, roll d100 once if using the entree column and twice if using the sides column
Add another d100 for the beverage, and you're good to go.

The Elves of Faerie

I'm currently running a West Marches style hexcrawl in D&D 5e, so I've been thinking of how to make the implied D&D setting more interesting. Anyone who has gamed with me before knows I love a few things in fantasy settings: Trolls, Elementals, and the Fair Folk. I like faeries that are dark and vicious and utterly incomprehensible to humanity. In horror gaming (where all monsters should be a metaphor for something) I treat them like magical sociopaths, doing horrible things with a smile on their face courtesy of their total lack of empathy. This extends beyond fantasy settings into urban fantasy and other modern genres.

Elves in D&D then present an interesting problem. In the English literary tradition, elves and fairies are interchangeable and I like to represent that in my games. I don't want to remove elves as a race because some people may want to play one, and heck, half elves are interesting enough (from a story perspective, ignoring mechanics) to grandfather in the whole elvish race. I'm presented with an issue in that case, how do I include Elves-as-fey when I have to include Elves-as-mortals. When I've tackled this problem before, I created a visually similar but distinct race of fey foot soldiers known to the general as Fey Elves. For my current setting, I'm going to do something slightly different.

“Elves as we know them were born from the faerie realms, even a child could tell you that. They couldn't, however, tell you why. There are two courts of the fey, sometimes called the Sun and the Moon Courts, the Winter and Summer Courts, or the Jade and Mithril Courts, the Fair Folk are capricious and frequently change names after one of their frequent coup d'etat. In the old days, when the homeland was still wild and dark, the fey would organize hunts of the pitiful scared mortals. This phenomenon grew less prevalent over time as we beat back the savage wilderness and tamed it. Eventually, it reached a point where the fey were able to step through to our world, but once there, they couldn't leave. The land wasn't wild enough to create a path back to their strange and savage realm. As the years went on, the Elven huntsmen grew weak and tired, their connection to Faerie draining in their absence. Eventually they became mortal and civilized, becoming the elves we know today.

Not all Elves joined in these hunts, the whims of a Fey creature are ever changing and the time it took for the paths to close was but a short time in the eyes of an immortal creature. Those elves retain their fey nature. The new world is still a wild, untamed place and the fey are easily able to cross over. The two courts are distinctive in culture and abilities.

The Winter Court (also called the Moon and Mithril Court) stick to the dark places of the world. These elves, called Drow by some scholars, are tall and pale skinned. Their hair is pitch black and they frequently wear large cloaks of raven feathers. Their highest art form is torture, exhibitions of their prowess can go on for days, driving kidnapped mortals mad with pain but leaving them alive and broken. The politics of the Winter Court are frequently lethal and advancement is usually secured over the body of a Drow's superiors. Clerics and Green Knights of their Archfey patrons are common and use their powers to prolong the suffering of their captors. They are a quiet and solemn culture, eschewing the ostentatious and rowdy displays of their Summer Court fellows.

The Summer Court (also called the Sun and Jade Court) is often mistaken for the Winter Court's good counterpart. This is sadly untrue as this court contains just as many vicious killers as the Drow. These elves are often called Eladrin, by those experts on the fey realm. Their hair and eyes are golden, fiery red, or somewhere in between. They dress in colourful tunics and often wear crowns or garlands of flowers. They enjoy combat, be it war or duels and consider it the most important skill for an Eladrin to have. They usually determine their leadership through duels to the death. The victor of these duels is not always the survivor. They judge the victor based on their performance, looking for strong aesthetic in their movements rather than martial prowess. This means that on rare occasions, the Summer Court will be lead by the dead body ushering in the reign of a Headless King or Queen. They don't reanimate these bodies, but instead have a bloody period of conflict with many Eladrin competing for regency.“