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[Mr Crabman]

Sometimes in myth and fairy tales you get creatures with a bunch of psychological or "legal" limitations/rules that don't make total sense logically speaking, but are still flavorful and interesting. These wouldn't be well suited for all worlds (so this kind of thing should be controllable with some kind of worldgen slider), but for some it could be good.

Broadly speaking, this suggestion is about compulsions to do certain things, regardless of it being really detrimental to the being in question.

- Counting numbers of objects before being able to walk past them. Traditional vampire weakness.
- Cannot enter a home without permission. Also vampires (side note, I saw a show once where vampire slayers defended themselves from an imminent attack by quickly setting up a tiny little tent, and it worked; flexibility in what counts as a home could be fun).
- Must clean up all messes/scattered objects into containers if they see them.
- Compulsively return greetings. Weakness of the Japanese kappa.
- Must answer questions if asked.
- Must answer questions honestly if they respond (not necessarily the same thing as being forced to answer).
- More generally, cannot tell lies at all (even if they weren't asked a question), though they might be able to omit certain important information.
- Cannot break promises/contracts (can be sneaky with the wording/consequences though, or find alternative ways to break the spirit of the promise; for example, one Irish legend has a leprachaun who was forced to reveal the location of his buried pot of gold and tie a hankerchief around the flower above it, and promise not to remove it before the guy came back with a shovel to dig it up; he didn't remove it, but he did put identical hankerchiefs on every other flower in the field).
- Cannot refuse anything offered as a gift, no matter how dangerous it may be to accept it.
- Must obey someone who uses a specially phrased command/instruction/special words. One interpretation of this is the traditional "demons true name" letting you control them.
- Cannot eat/drink certain substances/foods.
- Has a curfew to be in a certain place before a specific time.

Many more types of compulsions are certainly possible, and I encourage others to suggest their own ideas for magical compulsions/rules for quirky magical beings.

[Mobbstar]

- transformation curses that only cease through a token of kindness or a kiss (e.g. frog prince)
- scared/angered by music
- takes magic stuff which is ubiquitous in another world, and trades it in this world for something rather worthless (e.g. tooth fairy)
- cleans houses and fixes stockpiles out of habit (e.g. hobgoblin)
- interaction with a specific kind of blood
- in-/visible to children and young animals
- can instantly collapse unfinished buildings and un-/lock doors, but nothing else (e.g. you)

- Must obey someone who uses a specially phrased command/instruction/special words. One interpretation of this is the traditional "demons true name" letting you control them.

The northcoast dwarves say "lat fallen, wat nich dien hört" but the keas do not obey.

[SixOfSpades]

- Must obey the user of a certain code phrase, a certain number of times (e.g., djinni granting only three wishes)
- Every utterance must be a lie (should be interesting)
- Can only advance toward someone whose back is turned / cannot move while being observed (should the overseer count as an observer?)
- True form is only revealed during solar/lunar eclipses (or, far easier to implement, only during certain phases of the moon, although that's really just the inverse of a werebeast)
- Turned to stone if touched by sunlight (perhaps reanimating at sunset)
- Compulsively completes unfinished craft goods (a la The Elves & the Shoemaker)
- Collects body parts left in specific places (e.g., a tooth in one's bed), and leaves behind a small token in its place

[Mr Crabman]

- Will die if observed by specific individuals or individuals from a particular group (or maybe anyone at all!)
- Will die if anyone sees a certain part of them (eg, their back)
- Must always accept a challenge, provided the prizes for winning are appropriate (maybe they will demand to get your soul if you lose)
- When shapeshifting, must always have some indication of their true form present, never being able to fully hide their real self
- Can only cause harm if you look at them
- Can only cause harm if you look at/observe a specific object
- Can only cause harm if they trick you into verbally agreeing to it
- Can only cause harm if you try to cause them harm first
- Can only cause harm if you try to learn information about them
- Can only cause harm if you perform a specific innocuous action or say a specific phrase (candlejack candleja-)
- Cannot cross flowing liquids (may be specific to the liquid type, or maybe just generic flows)
- Cannot cross/enter unmoving liquids
- Cannot touch certain objects or object types without certain conditions being fulfilled; maybe they will be held back by a forcefield, or the object will pass through their body as if they were a ghost
- Must/will kill the first person they observe upon being woken up
- Invisible creatures/ghosts may be unable to harm anyone who can't see them
- Invisible creatures/ghosts may be unable to harm anyone who they don't know can see them, so victims must be sufficiently non-stoic/prone to reacting to the presence of these ghosts to be attacked

- Every utterance must be a lie (should be interesting)

This statement is false!

- Can only advance toward someone whose back is turned / cannot move while being observed (should the overseer count as an observer?)

Hmm, tricky, on the one hand it would dampen the impact of the effect to see them move as an overseer, and it would also possibly be a problem computation-wise to calculate whether individual creatures are observing them (there must be a reason we don't have fog of war for areas without dwarves in them, right?).

But on the other hand there's no point to them at all in fort mode if the overseer stops them moving, as well as immersion breaking...

[SixOfSpades]

- Can only advance toward someone whose back is turned / cannot move while being observed (should the overseer count as an observer?)

But on the other hand there's no point to them at all in fort mode if the overseer stops them moving, as well as immersion breaking...

Yeah, I figure that might help make them creepier--not only are they the only part of the game that seems to be aware of the player, but they're the only thing that the player can't witness, all you can do is read the combat reports.

Other creature possibilities:
- Can only speak in rhymes
- Cannot cross borders between biomes, unless moved over said border by another creature/vehicle
- Vulnerable to certain elements/materials
- Obsessed with certain materials and/or finished goods, and greatly desires same, but abhors the idea of stealing them (might steal other things, though). Can be negotiated with & made to perform some service and/or just go away, in trade for the desired item(s).
- Can only be [captured/tamed/understood/seen] by virgins (in DF, anyone who's never been married)