Forbidden Lands

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

02/07/202402/07/2024
Forbidden Lands, Session Reports, Setting Design, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

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.

01/06/202201/06/2022
Forbidden Lands, Session Reports, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

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.

07/04/202207/04/2022
Forbidden Lands, Session Reports, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

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.

01/03/202201/03/2022
Forbidden Lands, Session Reports, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

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.

22/01/202209/02/2022
Forbidden Lands, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

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.

14/01/202214/01/2022
Forbidden Lands, The Lush, the Wench and the Goblin

Thanks to my custom weather generator for the Forbidden Lands RPG, the times when someone went missing while going off to look for water proved to be fun and challenging. And a threat of too much thirst adding a thrill to the game. | Photo by Noe Araujo on Unsplash

When Mara, Bruni, and Hrod set out with Grulf into the Thynde Range, they were probably readying themselves to meet deadly monsters or hostile characters like warriors or sorcerers. B t I suppose that they didn’t expect who their primary opponent would be for a good part of the campaign. Harsh weather can be as let al and fearsome for RPG characters as demons and warlocks – and fun, too, if you’ve got a sound generator for it! Mine is a single thing that I’m most proud of.

Forbidden Lands

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

Forbidden Lands – Crafting & Crits

Challenges of Journey through the Forbidden Lands

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

Generating adventure site in Forbidden Lands

RPG Weather Generator – Harsh Summer in the Forbidden Lands