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.
A Fistful of Silver
Way back, when I first read the Hollows write-up, I immediately thought of A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood, and its alleged inspiration, Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Continuing my last post’s praise of the Forbidden Lands’ worldbuilding, I want to give a hat-tip to the game design of the Hollows as well. It’s a brilliant work of combining a well-known narrative theme with non-forced, engaging gameplay. Well done, Erik Granström!
In this campaign, though, my players weren’t interested in playing the power struggle too much. Meanwhile, they interacted with Vike, the hunter, almost every time they returned to the village. One of the characters, Buri, was also a dwarf, which incentivized the conflict with Brewmaster Yawim. Furthermore, the party as a whole was too anarchistic to enter any deals with the village’s elder, Mrs. Pollmor. That created a very potent mix, which I turned into a vivid story with just a little creativity.
Telling Story Off-Camera
I wanted the Hollows arc to play as organically as possible without any pressure on the players to engage with it. They decided to be tomb plunderers and wanted to stick to it, so I let them. But the game’s world can always benefit from some independent life in the background! (By the way, I recommend you an excellent take on that by The Angry GM, The Second Story) So what did I do?
First, I wrote down the key events that were proposed in the Beer War section (GMG, pp. 212-213). Then, alongside those bullet points, I noted keywords describing any visible change in the village after each of the story beats had taken place. Thus, I had a complete list to follow each time the party returned to the Hollows. Once, they saw a loud argument across the bridge right from the gates. Other time, they heard the innkeeper whining about the unrest in the village. But every time they came in, there was something going on.
The Gun for Hire
Finally, once they last came to the Hollows, Vike, the hunter, wasn’t at his usual place. But they didn’t notice that since they were focused on the village’s infamous tomb – and, after that, on recovering from their wounds. Only when they got back to planning their raid on the mountain recluses, they thought of the old trapper. Specifically, they wanted to hire him as one of the few people in the place that seemed like they could handle themselves in a fight. That – looking for a gun (or a bow in the fantasy setting, I guess?) – also has a very “Old West” feeling to it. An outlawed marksman bargaining for his aid in a raid gave this session a very strong theme. Did I mention earlier he had been outlawed? He was – when he had been caught putting Yawim’s supplies to the torch. But the village’s “mayor” left him high and dry, so he got outlawed without her taking the blame.
Thanks to a very good script in the book, I was able to insert a handful of casual comments into the village’s NPCs’ dialogues when the party was searching for Vike. This way, I told the story in like no more than ten sentences. Thus, the players were able to realize that their choice not to engage with the “Beer War” arc was, in fact, a choice. And that this choice had its consequences, even if they didn’t care much about it.
Seasoned Outlaw Leads the Way
With Vike finally enlisted, the party, together with their employer Grulf, set out for the Haunted Hill. With the dungeon conveniently located in the Thynde Range to the west, it was just too easy to narrate that journey in the light of the setting sun. Having a seasoned hunter with them, the party enjoyed kind of an easy ride, too. I could just play some of Ennio Morricone’s iconic soundtrack and enjoy that myself, as well. But there’s also a true gold nugget in there I took and refined after the story came to its closure. The closure, by the way, I’m probably bringing to you in the next two stories from this campaign. For now, though, let’s see how this gold bit here shines in the thyndian sunset.
The Forbidden West
As I said in the introduction, I’ve always had this feeling that the Forbidden Lands’ setting strongly resembles the Wild West movies. When we played through the session I just wrapped up above, I decided to give this idea more thought. But there have been a lot of ups and downs since then, haven’t there? Despite the harsh road I went through, though, I was able to outline, research, and think through a lot of material. The material I’m gearing up to share with you.
Keep Your Sights on the Horizon!
I’ve got at least a half-dozen of adventures ready to be written up. All of them are already outlined and conceptualized. There are some things I want to figure out before releasing the first one – like exact formatting, style, and such – to give the whole series a consistent look. Nevertheless, I will start publishing much more for this system. I found it more and more rewarding to run after I tried to run other games, campaigns, and genres.
To make sure you won’t miss that, click the button below to have me send you an email or two per month about what’s new on the site and in the process of making. Meanwhile, I’m finishing another Forbidden Lands content. Besides the session report articles, I’ve got a perfect introductory one-shot for you to try when starting a new game. Something I missed a lot a few years back. But that story, partner, will have to wait.
So, see you down the trail!
