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Forbidden Lands

The Forbidden West – Campaign’s Penultimate Chapter

I've always had that impression of Forbidden Lands reflecting the Wild West movies, especially the old ones like Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood.
I’ve always had that impression of Forbidden Lands reflecting the Wild West movies, especially the old ones like Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood. | Photo by Spring Fed Images on Unsplash

I’ve always had that impression of Forbidden Lands reflecting the Wild West movies, especially the old ones like Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood. And it never was stronger than when my group was gearing up for their final dungeon exploration. They searched for an outlawed ranger, Vike, to enlist him as additional support in upcoming fights. A gruff hunter banished from the village greatly resembled a gun-for-hire theme in Western films. Besides, as I’ll get to expand at the end, the latter turned out to be very rewarding and easy to work with as source material – including publishing my own modules as well.

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Forbidden Lands’ Gods & Religions – The Omen of the Manticore

I love how realistic the religions and beliefs about gods seem in the Forbidden Lands setting.
I love how realistic the religions and beliefs about gods seem in the Forbidden Lands setting. | Image by Matthias Grießhammer from Pixabay

So it wasn’t long ago (speaking about game-time, it was two years on the blog x.x) when the Trio escaped the grave (sic!) consequences of their greed in the tomb of Count Nepola. After a few weeks of recovery, they finally decided to face what emerged as the campaign’s main goal. Retrieval of a powerful artifact from the sorcerous monastery they agreed to undertake for Grulf. The story about Forbidden Lands’ gods and religions added a lot to this ultimate chapter – thanks to the presentation, I haven’t come by in any other RPG.

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Forbidden Lands – Crafting & Crits

Critical injury in the Forbidden Lands may stop the party from exploration and turn their attention to more conventional ways of making their living - like crafting. | Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash
Critical injury in the Forbidden Lands may stop the party from exploration and turn their attention to more conventional ways of making their living – like crafting. | Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash

This may not sound like an obvious connection, but it is for me. And I’m curious if you’ll see it so after reading the story of the following two sessions of my Forbidden Lands campaign – which the PCs spent mainly on healing their wounds and crafting to earn a living. It was also a very nice breather before what turned out to be the action-packed final chapter of our game.

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Challenges of Journey through the Forbidden Lands

In Forbidden Lands, a journey may not only be a completed task, getting from A to B, but also an accomplishment on its own - if you add an element of challenge to it. And accomplishment feels great!. | Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash
In Forbidden Lands, a journey may not only be a completed task, getting from A to B, but also an accomplishment on its own – if you add an element of challenge to it. And accomplishment feels fantastic! | Photo by Natalie Pedigo on Unsplash

I know I’ve written here and there about how the environment could be dangerous and why it is vital for me in a sandbox game. It puts pressure on the PCs to think and manage their resources. Today, I’d like to show you a few types of challenges that the players can encounter while on a journey in the Forbidden Lands. And I think that some may not be that obvious.

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Forbidden Lands Legends and Adventures – The Story of Blood Manticore Monastery

If you can’t bring the game world to life, the story falls apart. And that is precisely what the Legends and Adventures generator does – it tells stories of the Forbidden Lands’ inhabitants and their pursuits. | Photo by Taylor Wilcox on Unsplash

If I haven’t run the Forbidden Lands campaign for 1,5 years, I wouldn’t think that the Legends and Adventures generator may lead me to create a full-blown module that I’ll publish. But here I am: Today, I describe how I put this great tool to work and what precisely this thin leaflet is capable of. Namely: creating setting-friendly stories on the fly that might yield you a complex plot for a whole campaign with little to no effort.

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Generating adventure site in Forbidden Lands

Forbidden Lands' adventure site generating tables can be a great way to refine your improvisation as a GM and are a really good tool for making surprising backstories. | Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash - and it almost exactly fits the image I had when creating a mountain castle that I describe below.
Forbidden Lands’ adventure site generating tables can be a great way to refine your improvisation as a GM and are a really good tool for making surprising backstories. | Photo by James A. Molnar on Unsplash – and it almost exactly fits the image I had when creating a mountain castle that I describe below.

The Aslene were fighting their way through the Shadowgate Pass, demons swarming all around them. Losses were heavy, and hope was waning. Still, it was better than the fate of the western lands where horses of outlandish creatures ravaged the refugees’ homeland. Among them, a warrior princess led the bravest fighters to secure the passage for their relatives. Old songs tell of her bow, shooting fiery arrows that made the fight with demons possible. She made her last stand in the mountain keep called Eagle Nest. And generating it was the first adventure site in my Forbidden Lands RPG campaign.

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