Breathe Life into Your Campaigns
Not Just Wander by Country
Role-playing game adventuring parties often find themselves in a forest.
Their quests take them through or near or beyond great wooded lands on many occasions.
Fill your RPG campaign with mystery and wonder. Don’t allow yourself as a GM to simply rely on clichés or to brush past opportunities. Leave a lasting impression on your players.
It is easy to throw a few creatures in here or there. Perhaps a few bandits or other standard encounters and that’s it.
The party breezes through the forest and there are a few episodes of minor combat. Then the party reaches the temple, the dungeon, the castle, or the town.
However, as a serious Game Master, you should be looking for ways to give every part of your campaign the chance to live and breathe.
Forests are no exception.
This short guide will give you some ideas on how to bring forests alive. It will help you seize an opportunity when crafting a new campaign.
A forest should be a place of mythology and folklore. A forest can be filled with so much more than simple combat encounters.
A journey through a forest can set the tone of your campaign or adventure. It can provide an atmosphere that will make your world come alive.
Describing Forests
The description is where it all begins.
When your players are all gathered around the table and they have put down their phones. All eyes are on you as Game Master.
Even if you only decide to skim over the party’s journey through a forest, the description is crucial.
Think about the forest in broad terms at first. There are many types of forests.
Tropical
The tropical forest can be a nice change of pace for players who are used to adventuring in northern lands.
These forests can be either wet or dry and contain vast varieties of tree and other plant life as well as nearly innumerable insect and animal species.
When adventuring in the jungle, keep in mind humidity and visibility.
In a rainforest, a perpetual drizzle will greet the characters on their trek. Even if it is not raining, the humidity will have them dripping in no time.
The party should be tramping through puddles and rivulets.
A dry tropical forest can have the opposite effect, draining the characters and leaving them parched.
Visibility in some jungles is no more than a few feet. The sides of the path or road simply become walls of vegetation.
If there is no path, hacking and slashing one is difficult, backbreaking toil.
Temperate
Temperate forests are the most common, but a little imagination can bring them to life again.
Ferns, mosses, and fungi intermingle with saplings and ancient trees. Think about the season in which your party is traveling.
In temperate deciduous forests, the trees’ leaves change to vibrant colors in the fall. This could be an amazing backdrop for an adventuring party.
In winter, the leaves have fallen. Trees rise like skeleton specters.
Spring brings a new leafy green as well as a fresh budding hope. A return journey home in the spring can brighten spirits after months of toil.
The heat of summer can be used to oppress characters and make them yearn for rest.
Boreal
Boreal forests are the true forests of the north. Sometimes called snow forests, they are typified by evergreens and low ground cover.
Taiga and tundra become common the farther north one dares. However, larch and pine are more widespread.
Strange Forests
A petrified forest can be a strange site indeed. Think of its impression on the characters.
It would be like walking through a forest of stone if the trees still stand. If they have crumbled long ago, surely they would paint a ghostly, apocalyptic picture.
A forest of crystal would be a unique experience that could pepper an adventurer’s tale with wonder.
Giant mushrooms can make an eerie, unearthly forest. The spores can have a hypnotic or intoxicating effect or even a comical one.
A forest with no noticeable animal or insect life, like the Sea of Trees at the foot of Mount Fuji, can be unnerving. A deafening quiet can be maddening.
Use Everything to Your Advantage
Any of these forests can be populated with sacred trees or living trees or any type of encounter.
Being able to describe the type of trees and other vegetation will give more of a sense of immersion to your players.
Describe the path. Is it leaf-covered and damp? Is it dry, hardened earth with bare roots exposed?
Don’t forget about rocks and boulders. Moss-covered boulders lay like a giant’s shoulders next to the road, inspiring awe in the characters. Small rocks, strewn about as if by malicious fairies, weary the feet of travelers and create another obstacle for adventurers.
Thorns, thorns, thorns. Always remember to include thorns.
Be sure to describe the sounds of the forest. Birds, insects, and the sounds of other creatures bellowing in the distance. Wind awaking the leaves. Creeks babbling or rain softly dripping.
Think about the smell as well. Each plant, flower, and every type of vegetation has its own unique smell.
Use all your tricks to paint a picture your players will never forget.
Types of Magical Forests
Since we are talking about role-playing games, magic certainly can play a large part in the forest you are creating. They are several types of magical forests to consider.
Elder forests
Some forests are old, and ancient beyond ancient. When the elder races first set foot in them, they were old. These are elder forests.
In the elder forests, wonders lurk behind every leaf and stem. They are drenched with symbolism.
When creating an elder forest, be sure to include certain characteristics. The foliage should be dense. Murmurs and whispers play among the trees.
A heavy intelligence, mind, or emotions should weigh upon any visitor. Any party moving through an elder forest should be in awe.
Respect should fall upon them. Talking should be labored. Mirth and laughter are suppressed.
They’re in the presence of their elders.
An elder forest can take upon itself a cosmological significance. The very Tree of Life could stand at the center.
If characters chop or cut any wood, grave consequences should befall them. They should know they are in the very heart of nature herself.
No insolence will be tolerated.
An elder forest can be a nice change of pace from light and breezy forests or from darker cursed forests.
Be creative and evocative in your descriptions. Even if your characters just pass through the edge of an elder forest, it should leave an impression on them.
They should know that their game master is taking this world seriously. And that you have provided a history and there are consequences for the slightest action.
Enchanted Forest
Another type of forest is the enchanted forest. These are the forests of medieval romances.
Such a forest is filled with melodies and gaiety and lightheartedness.
Enchanted forests hold wonders and mysteries that can enchant players and characters alike.
The air should be light, the atmosphere clear and fresh. New wonders and marvels should be around every corner.
Fantastic trees or plants that the characters have never seen should populate the groves and glens.
Fantastic folk, ready to offer weary travelers a fine meal and a taste of ale.
Encounters in an enchanted forest should be mysterious. Combat should be minimal.
More appropriate encounters are riddles, strange folk with information, and lost lovers flitting among the trees.
Caravans or celebrating bands of wood elves, moving through their homelands without a care in the world, stop to chat briefly with strangers.
Enchanted forests also carry romance. The feeling should be around the characters.
Princesses or princes, with their retinue passing along, tempt the party to leave its quest. Enjoy life. Indulge in worldly pleasures.
Cottages and cabins can be stumbled upon. In these homely shacks, the players can be confronted with a respite or an enigma.
Another feature of an enchanted forest could be the great hunt with a mythical stag or boar as the object.
Cursed Forest
Any fan of Tolkien will remember Mirkwood. A forest can labor under a foul curse or the influence of evil beings.
Don’t ignore these in your games when constructing a campaign.
Has the villain’s influence spread even to the forests around his lair? What changes have fallen upon the landscape?
Has a once-pleasant forest turned into a den for bandits and thieves or foul creatures?
The trees should be blackish. The ground like dark dried blood. The sun blocked out. The odors foul and reeking.
Players should know they have entered a damned place.
There should always be a way to rid the forest of the curse.
The hunt could be used here as well. The great boar or the mythical stag darkens the forest. Once slain and the skin taken to the king, the curse is lifted. Once the evil wizard’s tower is overthrown and his staff broken, the polluting influence on the forest is dispelled.
Whenever your party is traveling through a cursed forest, make your descriptions so vivid that they are uncomfortable.
Make resting difficult. Make eating difficult. Let them know that they travel through an abomination.
The Sacred Grove
Druids are most familiar with these places. The sacred grove is a hallowed place. The meeting place for elders and students.
A place of worship.
The place where nature’s business is discussed and conducted.
The sacred grove can have a guardian of supernatural power. If disturbed, the characters will feel its wrath. Or, perhaps the guardian is a simple druid.
Either way, a character who desecrates anything within the sacred grove will do so on pain of death.
The sacred grove can contain a mythical being in the center. Perhaps an ancient druid, who holds valuable information for the party. Perhaps an elven maid forever weeping for her lost love.
The grove could have been made sacred through several means.
First, something terrible could have happened on the spot. A grove such as this will be melancholy.
Second, something wonderful happened on the spot. This type of grove should be light and refreshing.
Third, the grove can hold either magical or religious significance.
Groves such as these should take on the tenor of the religion or the magic they represent.
Groves can also be hiding places. A place where peasants flee if their village has been burned by the villain’s fell minions.
Introducing a sacred grove can give your campaign a feeling of mystery, mythology, and folklore.
You can show your players that this world has been populated long before their characters existed.
The world of this campaign is not just a shell constructed for their amusement. It is a living, breathing thing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, use your imagination. Imbue your forests with life. After all, they are living things.
Think of the sounds. The smells of the different types of trees and other vegetation. Describe flowers or mosses and gigantic trees.
Don’t let this opportunity go to waste. Give your players something that they’ll never forget. Show them that you are a GM that takes your campaigns and adventures seriously.
Take some time. Look up pictures of forests online. Find a soundtrack if you like.
Think about tales or myths or legends involving forests. Roll some of those themes into your campaign.
Lend weight and substance to the world in which you are adventuring. You can give your players a sense of wonder.
A forest is not something to be treated lightly. Don’t let an opportunity like this go to waste.
Use your creativity. Spend a few minutes giving your forests more character. It will transform your sessions.
Forest Resource List
- Enchanted Forests – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_forest
- Forests – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest
- Old-growth Forests – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest
- Jungles – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle
- Temperate Deciduous Forests – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_deciduous_forest
- Ancient Woodlands – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_woodland
- Forest Sounds – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbfUsJ38qE
- Jungle Sounds – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOR8p_xMczg
- Larch – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larch
- Forest Sounds with River (nine hours!) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nwn-TZfFUI
Explore Dicegeeks Resources and RPGs at DriveThruRPG.com