Forest canopy adventures

[Trufflehound]

I'd really like to run an adventure in the upper levels of some jungle. Something where the party has to climb high without rope ladders, fight monkeys in their native habitat, and search the 120' tall canopy till they find the macguffin.

It's an issue of depth. A dungeon, on one hand, is easy to map out on a piece of paper. The corridors happen to be ten feet wide, and there might be a few staircases. There should be a monster or trap in most rooms. But the tactics are usually pretty simple; the scout moves ahead silently to search and sneak attack, the meat shield charges and bashes, and the wizard casts potent spells of power. A druid does all of the above. As such though, there are four ways people move:
1. Towards the monster.
2. Away from the monster.
3. Around the monster.
4. Towards the treasure.

This may be interesting enough for the spellcasters, but the non-spellcasters don't have a lot of interesting options.

Now a forest canopy has a few more movement options.
1. Up trees
2. Down trees
3. Up or down vines.
4. Swinging on vines.
5. Jumping from tree to tree.
6. Jumping from tree to ground.
7. Across the ground.
8. Balancing on branches
9. Crawling along branches.
10. All of the above, except involving ropes and grappling hooks.
11. Falling out of the tree.

Meat shields that use two-handed weapons would be out of luck (actually, they would probably cut down the trees), as is the dwarven wizard who can't cast 3rd level spells. The monk and ranger should manage quite nicely though. Until they try to swing on an epiphytic assassin vine.

Is there any way I could plan out a forest without actually making a full scale model? Are there any 3d mapping programs that might work? Any ways I could map a decent sized area without using a ton of paper?

Any ways to keep the party from just burning it down?

[supermonkeyjoe]

Well for one thing having the macguffin be fragile should stop them just destroying the forest and sifting through the wreckage.

Also what size trees are you thinking here? I'd map out a path of large branches that are easily walkable on as with a standard dungeon but let the players travel; off the "paths" with a jump/climb/balance check as appropriate. Could make for some interesting encounters if something is shooting at them from another parallel branch.

[dsmiles]

The only question I can answer is the last one.
"No."

[Trufflehound]

I was thinking about doing 100' tall trees, but I'll probably cut it down to 70-80 feet, with the top ten or fifteen feet being too narrow to support weight. This way I could cut it into seven ten foot layers.
I suppose I could organize the branches and foliage into five color-coded sections.
The 1' wide branches, which would be short sections right by the trunk. No balance check necessary.
The 12-6" wide branches. Need balance check, can support any weight.
The 6"-3" wide branches. Can support up to, say, 250-160 lb.
The 3-1.5" wide branches. Can support up to 50 lb.
Open foliage.
Still ends up being a lot of paper, though.

Or I could just map out the trunks, large branches, and extent of the foliage, and base the climb and balance checks on the distances from the trunk.

But archers in other trees, excellent. I'll have to put in Forest Gnome platforms.
I'll also put in monkeys, stirges, giant bees, and snakes.
And the stream beneath will have dire half-dragon bone-eating werepirhanas.

[Serpentine]

The best way I've figured out to work with this sort of thing is to make your map out of clear plastic sheets and whiteboard markers - have one sheet for each unit of height (e.g. 10ft), and draw them all on top of one another. In combat, you can spread them out so they can be looked at side-by-side.

[Trufflehound]

The best way I've figured out to work with this sort of thing is to make your map out of clear plastic sheets and whiteboard markers - have one sheet for each unit of height (e.g. 10ft), and draw them all on top of one another. In combat, you can spread them out so they can be looked at side-by-side.

Or inkscape layers maybe?

[Serpentine]

Sure, that'd work. I was thinking for in-game, vector programme layers would be better for planning.

[Jallorn]

The only advice I can offer is to look at how Kashyyyk works, you might get some ideas.

[TheThan]

The only advice I can offer is to look at how Kashyyyk works, you might get some ideas.

Good idea, here's a wiki link to help out:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kashyyyk

[Vknight]

Good idea, here's a wiki link to help out:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kashyyyk

I support this.
That is how treetops civilizations are done

[Trufflehound]

Kashyyyk is excellent as far as treetop civilizations go, but the trees are a bit massive (You know how much energy it would take to get moisture from the roots to the leaves? Also, I don't want to know how much carbon sequestering that is). They would wreak havoc upon the average campaign setting. Especially when you introduce wroshyr treants.

But more to the point, I started looking up jungle pictures, and found this diagram on wikicommons.

Spoiler

Show

So the bottom two thirds of any tree are trunk, and the top half of its foliage can't support a hobbit's weight. So I don't have to map out that much per tree.

I think I'll use four types of trees, with different types of bark, leaves, height, etc. Add forest gnome structures, assorted monsters, and assorted underbrush. I'll make a 50'x50' square of mixed trees in detail; I can use the same basic pattern (minus gnome platforms) if the party leaves the main area.

[myancey]

I have a homebrew map that is extremely dense with giant sequoia's. Adapt the sequoia to a more tropic environment (enough water to support dense clusters of massive trees), and cluster them closely together. These trees are huge...not as big as trees on Kashyyyk...but can still be hollowed out to make homes..even multiple layers of home. Sequoia's can survive with surprisingly little trunk. And they're a soft wood tree so great for carving into. Also, resistant to fire.

Yay red woods...

[Hiro Protagonest]

Any ways to keep the party from just burning it down?

Realistic reactions by NPC druids, clerics of nature deities, rangers, nature loving barbarians, elves, and basically anyone else who cares about nature.

[Vknight]

Also said groups being ready to fight for it so its clear that they bring an army

[Honest Tiefling]

Realistic reactions by NPC druids, clerics of nature deities, rangers, nature loving barbarians, elves, and basically anyone else who cares about nature.

So what stops the party from burning them down? If you have a laptop, maybe make layers that the players can view. Might be a good time to bring out Maptools and show the players what is going on.

[Seb Wiers]

I'd run it pretty much like a system of walkways & platforms over the ground. You don't need multiple levels of maps unless things cross over each-other; there's just the ground, and various "walkways" (branches) and "platforms" (structures, wider branches, crotches in trunks). Some (probably most that are not artificial or modified) surfaces would be difficult terrain for non-arborial / non-flying creatures. Not all the surfaces need be the same height above ground, but for combat purposes they are close enough (unless you want climbing going on in combat); you could color code them for flying / falling purposes, but otherwise assume LOS is as if the map were flat. You also may want to map in clumps of leaves that serve only as concealment, acting sort of like visual walls.

As far as burning the whole thing- its a rainforest, during the monsoon season. This also reduces visibility even more than usual, ensuring that ranged attacks don't dominate (because it will if you have lots of open space & allow long range LOS).

Honestly though, before inflicting this on players, I'd have them meet some friendly guides who hook them up with magic items that let them move a bit more safely in the trees. Because an 80 foot fall still takes you out of the fight (if you have no way to quickly climb back up) even if the damage doesn't kill you, and it WILL kill most normal NPCs. Maybe just some sort of magical safety harness that automatically latches on to secure holds as you move, and lets you pull yourself back up to where you fell from (but leaving you prone) as a standard action (easy athletics test).

[Greenish]

Realistic reactions by NPC druids, clerics of nature deities, rangers, nature loving barbarians, elves, and basically anyone else who cares about nature.

Forest fires are perfectly natural. The life cycles of some plants even rely on them, and many others have evolved to benefit from them (usually by surviving better than competing plants).

[Trufflehound]

Good points Seb. As long as I know roughly where in the tree each person is, I don't need to know exactly. But for that to work, I need to make a system for climb and balance DCs that only uses the rough location in the tree. You could base branch strength on how far from the edge of the foliage you are, given that anyone is going to climb on the biggest and longest branches available.

So a branch could hold 5 lb one foot away from the edge of the foliage,
15 lb at two feet,
30 lb - 3'
50 lb - 4'
75 lb - 5'
105 lb - 6'
140 lb - 7'
180 lb - 8'
225 lb - 9'
275 lb - 10'.,
and so forth.

Because an 80 foot fall still takes you out of the fight (if you have no way to quickly climb back up) even if the damage doesn't kill you, and it WILL kill most normal NPCs. Maybe just some sort of magical safety harness that automatically latches on to secure holds as you move, and lets you pull yourself back up to where you fell from (but leaving you prone) as a standard action (easy athletics test).

Good point. They should manage fairly easily with normal ropes, harnesses, grapnel hooks and spikes, though. I'll give them enough climbing equipment before the quest, and let them take advantage of their use rope ranks. It's not automatic, but it should be enough.

I can always put a small tree or large soft bush or stream of dire half-dragon bone-eating werepirhanas below falling pcs if I need to.