ShadowsGrnEyes
2009-08-13, 01:40 PM
I am a relatively new DM and I am running a game known affectionately as "The Forest of Dread". The idea behind FOD was introduced to me by the person who introduced me to gaming and it was introduced to him supposedly by the inventor of this horrificly fantastic game.
The concept behind the forest of dread is that there is the standard haunted/enchanted/magical forest into which the party must venture for one reason or another. Once into the forest there is no escape until you reach the center. Here's the kicker. The forest has a constantly changing landscape which always shifts the moment a character isnt looking at it, and contains pieces of and endless number of worlds within it. The forest could one day be the deepest darkest jungles of the amazon planet and the next moment be a tundra or a desert or have a random ocean just sort of show up.
Random encounter tables are the backbone of a wilderness campaign and to run the forest of dread you need the mother of all random encounter tables. I created my own incorporating Terrain, Weather, Events, and Monsters.
There is a 70% chance that the random tables will role a monster and 10% for terrain, weather, or events respectively.
The Terrain and Weather categories contain all terrains or weather patterns found in the DMG and for certain circumstances I will reffence the appropriate supplement books (ie. sandstorm for desert terrain in a heat wave, frostburn for tundra in a snowstorm.) The rolled terrain will last for 1d12 days or until another terrain is rolled while weather will last for 1d12 hours or until another weather is rolled.
The events category is very important as this is where the plot goes. I had each of my players write 5 plot points for their character and I wrote a number of plotpoints for the actual main story. Interspersed with the plot points are other remarkable events. The epic encounter that the party should avoid and not engage would fall in this category (at least until they're epic level). These "events" are rolled randomly and it's up to me to figure how to put them together in a sensible way. How exactly the Tiefling Archivist's fiendish drow-marelith halfbrother ended up in the middle of a grassy planes with the desire slay said tiefling archivist, for example.
The real joy of the forest of dread and 70% of play time happens with the random monster encounters. Because the forest of dread is a constantly changing landscape connected to hundred or even thousands of planes of existence you can quite literaly roll ANYTHING.
Taking this into account and not wanting to TPK every other night I devised a 3 step system for rolling monsters.
1. Roll realative CR to the party. roll a d10 1=CR-2, 2 or 3=Cr-1, 4through 7= cr+0, 8 or 9 = cr+1, 10 = cr+2
Now I know how hard or easy the encounter is gonna be in realation to my party and hopefully I've limited it so I wont kill them too fast
2. I Roll which book im gonna use with a d%. I have access to dozens of dnd books with monsters in them. I just counted them up and gave them percentages. I give the monsters manuals 1-5 a much higher percentage than the others but really if you only have a few books you could just pick at random.
3. I roll a monster of the appropriate cr. To save myself alot of time I use the monster index on the wizards website to roll my monsters. You can sort by book and cr.
I like this massive random encounter system because it gives you as the Dm a chance to put all those monsters you loved but couldnt figure out how to use. I love this as a player cause you actually get to slay or at least interact with all those cool monsters.
BUT WAIT theres more.
The forest of dread is an inherently evil place. Any creatures spending an extended stay will quickly discover a number of interesting quirks. These are the quirks I use in my game any other Dm's can choose their own as they like.
1. Conjuration(healing) magic doesnt work. at all.
i enjoy this game mechanic because it forces your player to think outside the box and it forces your barbarian fighter to actually care that he just took a greatsword to the stomach, no he wont get healing after he finishes the mosnter off.
2. Taint!!! I love the taint system. the way i work it is that the closer you are to the center of the forest, the higher that chances of taint are. characters get rolls (either phantom rolls you make or actual saves) to keep themselves free of taint.
3. Alignment shift. The closer you are to the center, the more evil things are, even if the rules say somthing is always good. In my game i have it arranged so that at the heart of the forest of dread a LG monster would be CE. treat it like a large bulseye. At each ring push the alignment of all non pc's one step toward CE.
So thats the game. I'm 3 sessions in with my players. I'll post updates and would very much appreciate advice of more experienced DM's as this is only my second ever DM experience (my first with d20)
The concept behind the forest of dread is that there is the standard haunted/enchanted/magical forest into which the party must venture for one reason or another. Once into the forest there is no escape until you reach the center. Here's the kicker. The forest has a constantly changing landscape which always shifts the moment a character isnt looking at it, and contains pieces of and endless number of worlds within it. The forest could one day be the deepest darkest jungles of the amazon planet and the next moment be a tundra or a desert or have a random ocean just sort of show up.
Random encounter tables are the backbone of a wilderness campaign and to run the forest of dread you need the mother of all random encounter tables. I created my own incorporating Terrain, Weather, Events, and Monsters.
There is a 70% chance that the random tables will role a monster and 10% for terrain, weather, or events respectively.
The Terrain and Weather categories contain all terrains or weather patterns found in the DMG and for certain circumstances I will reffence the appropriate supplement books (ie. sandstorm for desert terrain in a heat wave, frostburn for tundra in a snowstorm.) The rolled terrain will last for 1d12 days or until another terrain is rolled while weather will last for 1d12 hours or until another weather is rolled.
The events category is very important as this is where the plot goes. I had each of my players write 5 plot points for their character and I wrote a number of plotpoints for the actual main story. Interspersed with the plot points are other remarkable events. The epic encounter that the party should avoid and not engage would fall in this category (at least until they're epic level). These "events" are rolled randomly and it's up to me to figure how to put them together in a sensible way. How exactly the Tiefling Archivist's fiendish drow-marelith halfbrother ended up in the middle of a grassy planes with the desire slay said tiefling archivist, for example.
The real joy of the forest of dread and 70% of play time happens with the random monster encounters. Because the forest of dread is a constantly changing landscape connected to hundred or even thousands of planes of existence you can quite literaly roll ANYTHING.
Taking this into account and not wanting to TPK every other night I devised a 3 step system for rolling monsters.
1. Roll realative CR to the party. roll a d10 1=CR-2, 2 or 3=Cr-1, 4through 7= cr+0, 8 or 9 = cr+1, 10 = cr+2
Now I know how hard or easy the encounter is gonna be in realation to my party and hopefully I've limited it so I wont kill them too fast
2. I Roll which book im gonna use with a d%. I have access to dozens of dnd books with monsters in them. I just counted them up and gave them percentages. I give the monsters manuals 1-5 a much higher percentage than the others but really if you only have a few books you could just pick at random.
3. I roll a monster of the appropriate cr. To save myself alot of time I use the monster index on the wizards website to roll my monsters. You can sort by book and cr.
I like this massive random encounter system because it gives you as the Dm a chance to put all those monsters you loved but couldnt figure out how to use. I love this as a player cause you actually get to slay or at least interact with all those cool monsters.
BUT WAIT theres more.
The forest of dread is an inherently evil place. Any creatures spending an extended stay will quickly discover a number of interesting quirks. These are the quirks I use in my game any other Dm's can choose their own as they like.
1. Conjuration(healing) magic doesnt work. at all.
i enjoy this game mechanic because it forces your player to think outside the box and it forces your barbarian fighter to actually care that he just took a greatsword to the stomach, no he wont get healing after he finishes the mosnter off.
2. Taint!!! I love the taint system. the way i work it is that the closer you are to the center of the forest, the higher that chances of taint are. characters get rolls (either phantom rolls you make or actual saves) to keep themselves free of taint.
3. Alignment shift. The closer you are to the center, the more evil things are, even if the rules say somthing is always good. In my game i have it arranged so that at the heart of the forest of dread a LG monster would be CE. treat it like a large bulseye. At each ring push the alignment of all non pc's one step toward CE.
So thats the game. I'm 3 sessions in with my players. I'll post updates and would very much appreciate advice of more experienced DM's as this is only my second ever DM experience (my first with d20)