Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Wildwood

[Crothian]

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175 descriptions bring excitement to any simple trip through the woods!
"Into the Wildwood" provides evocative descriptions to liven up those miles of forest travel. It provides short "bits" of description and colorful settings that could be used to describe nearly any fantasy forest, regardless of the system. This is created to be an "on the go" product, which means you don’t need to read the entire work before you can use it. The descriptions are designed so that they can be randomly generated as you play or placed carefully ahead of time. It is written to be of use to both experienced and inexperienced Game Masters, particularly those who (for whatever reason) find themselves short on time or creativity.

This book includes 100 Bits of description, small pieces that can be stuck in anywhere a little description is needed, and numbered so they can be used randomly. Each Bit is also provided in index card format for ease of use by Game Masters. In addition, there are 75 other descriptions that may depict a particular place (bridge, road) or describe the seasons or weather.

The material is indexed a number of ways to allow a GM to easily find a description to fit a particular circumstance. Several descriptions are graphically depicted in the interior art by Christine Griffin.

Also included are three unique forest menaces, written especially for this book by Christopher A. Field. Provided are detailed introductions for use by the GM, and 3.5 Edition statistics of each creature.

In addition, we are pleased to feature an article that looks at how to make forests in your game realistic and yet different from each other. Written by Professor of Biology K. H. Keeler, the article includes “Forest Kits,” quick and easy sets of information on the plants and animals common to various types of forest.

 

[Crothian]

Bits of Wilderness into the Wildwood

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As a DM I like the books that make my life easier. Sure, the books of feats and classes can be fun to imagine how to craft the pieces together into interested characters, but that is not as useful as say a book of pre made characters. I have found that flexible products like the Foul Locale series from Mystic Eye Games and the En Route series by Atlas to be completely useable at a moments notice in a game. These are the books that really help the DM out. A simple reading of them before hand, they are filled with interesting situations and places and characters. These are the products that I continually use in my games. These products I find uses for for many years in other systems and games. They are the books of ideas and creativity. They are books much like this one.

Bits of Wilderness into the Wildwood is a new PDF by Table top Games. These people know how to make my life easy as a DM. They have books like this on all about descriptions. They are well written, well laid out, and even have art in them when the art really is not needed. But it is really nice to see. The book is not really designed to be print out in full, and this I find really creative. They have all the descriptions organized on cards that can be printed out making them even easier to use. I print out the cards and then paperclip the descriptions I want to use to the places in the adventure they are going to be used. This saves times, makes them easy to organize, and most importantly makes sure I do not forget to use. The book is also book marked and has a great index making it useable in different ways what ever works for the DM.

The idea behind the book is simple and genius at the same time. The whole Bits of series works off the same idea. Descriptions of rooms, cities, different places the players encounter can be a bit of a pain for some DMs. I know I especially have problems coming up with descriptions on the fly when the players decide to go somewhere that I really was not quite expecting them to go. And these are not just descriptions, but well thought out information about the place. The writing and images the words bring on are defiantly better then I could come up with and present a level of detail most people just do not have the time to do. This particular book covers places in the forest. It does do different types of forest but also does the weather and different seasons. There are also two basic types of descriptions one can find here. The first are bits and the second are shards. Bits are smaller descriptions a little easier to make use of and apply. Shards are bigger and longer and still easier to use but they describe a larger section and might need a bit of alteration if a particular part does not exactly fit.

Here is an example of one of the bits: ”You hear a sudden crash and see a flash of light as the leaves are forced aside and reflect the sunlight. The drumming of hooves tells the tale as a stag flees the intruders to his woods.”

And here is an example of a shard: “As the path emerges from the trees, you discover the ground here drops precipitously. Scrambling down the steep slope would be possible, but definitely not easy. Then there would be the climb back up the other side of this narrow valley – another possibly dangerous effort. Instead the path turns and runs along the edge for a distance, and ahead you see a bridge. It’s a suspended rope bridge stretching more than one hundred feet across the deep valley. In the center the tops of tall forest trees are more than thirty feet below. The bridge is constructed of four ropes. Two form the base, with short pieces of wood tied between them for a walking surface. The second pair of ropes is suspended about three feet above the first. At intervals, short pieces of rope tie the upper and lower ropes together. Below, you can hear a rushing river, but it is obscured by the thick woods. Walking on the bridge causes it to vibrate and swing strongly. When you try to cross, you discover that most adventurers are too tall to hold on to the three-foot-high “handrail” comfortably. To grasp the upper ropes, it will be necessary to bend over. All the way across the bridge, you will be choosing between bending to have a handhold, despite the risk of unsettling all the weight you are carrying, or walking the swaying, uneven logs without a handhold and with a rail that is no higher than your hips".

Those are also two very nice descriptions. These types of things can really add a nice level to some games though one should be careful as over description can be a problem as well. There is a nice middle ground that can be found with this book and the needs of the group.

It should be no surprise that I am giving this book a high rating. It does the job it set out to do very well. It does a job that no other book or company is really doing these days. And it is very useful for practically any DM. There is really not much more one could want from a book or from a company.