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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gilladian" data-source="post: 4494394" data-attributes="member: 2093">I've been working on a section of a large, deep, primeval forest in my campaign. First thing I do is figure out the terrain and the plant life, then the native non-magical animal life. I suggest comparing your selected forest to a geographically and climatically similar area of the earth for this. Use wikipedia and sites such as national parks to get a basic description. For example, my forest has been pulled from descriptions of the southern coastal forests of Virginia and North Carolina. It's very different from the forests of Vermont and New Hampshire that I used for another region. Then work up a list of monsters that would be in the area. They don't have to be the arch-baddie monsters, but for example I decided that this forest, Anhieldfast, has hobgoblin and bugbear tribes in it, but no orcs or giants. There are a few evil plant-monsters, but most of the unusual creatures are dire-animals. An evil temple to the Death-god of my campaign is located here, so there are a few abberations and some more powerful creatures that have been drawn in by that vibe. And lastly, because of a previous adventure in the region in an earlier campaign, I know that green dragons are a strong possibility. I'm planning on one dragon lair.Then I throw in the human/humanoid influences on the region; the Starmistress Adele and her prophetic sorceresses, the evil temple and the tribal humanoids all get fleshed out here, but so do the frog-folk, and the humans who live just north of the Anhieldfast. Once I know whether or not these groups really affect the forest (the temple and humanoids do, but the others are less noticeable; the humans are afraid, the frog-people are reclusive, and the sorceresses are a tiny number). Once you know all that, you can make an encounter table or three, create a list of adjectives to describe the forest (remember to include as many senses as possible), a seasonal weather/temperature range chart if you like, and you're ready to go.I realize I haven't described a particular region here, but I hope this will help you think about EACH region...</blockquote>

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