Plunder lost tombs, fight terrible monsters, wander wild lands, and if you live long enough, build a stronghold. Make your mark on a cursed world and start a new campaign in the Forbidden Lands.
Forbidden Lands uses the Year Zero rules previously reviewed. New rule options include talents with three tiers, dice up to d12 for powerful magic effects, and monsters with six attack options. Get started with the free quickstart or PDF. Availabe in print is the Forbidden Lands box set or start with all the options including cards, custom dice, a GM screen, and a hardcover adventure with the Forbidden Lands Raven Bundle. Or simply pick up Raven’s Purge or the Raven's Purge PDF later if desired.
Kin include the standard fantasy folk along with goblins, orcs, and wolfkin. Eight professions include the hunter who is useful for surviving the wilds and the peddler who ensures that hard earned treasures sell high in town and can pull all kinds of needed gear from his pack.
As an example, Chris creates a wolfkin fighter, Tony a halfling rogue, and Beth a Meromannian dwarf sorcerer of the path of stone. Brie, the GM, talks with the players and they decide to place the Hollows, their starting village, in southeast Yendra south of the Shroud (forest) near all of the character’s homelands. Forbidden Lands has a full color hex map (double sided) with stickers for specific locations. Brie removes the sticker for the Hollows and places it on a village symbol at the mouth of the river flowing from Lake Mill.
Beth has a concern that her sorcerer begins with no Willpower points and can’t cast spells immediately. Brie explains that Willpower is generated by pushing the characters (rerolling) and can be quickly earned in game. And holding a stronghold generates Willpower as well. (If you do not like this approach, consider starting each PC with 1 Willpower with the GM getting Willpower for NPCs equal to all the PCs’ Willpower combined.)
Brie decides to place the castle adventure site of Weatherstone 50 kilometers south of the Hollows. She places a sticker for Weatherstone over the castle symbol on her map. Brie knows that the scorpion beast of Weatherstone is deadly with a whipping tail, roar, poison, and more threats. Brie decides that Beth’s dwarf’s spell dust from the deep works in Weatherstone in case a retreat is needed.
Brie decides to start with the adventurers half way to Weatherstone pursuing rumors from a tired treasure hunter and starting with a random encounter perhaps flagellants or the dwarf balloon pilot from the GM’s Guide. She starts planting clues leading to Raven’s Purge in Weatherstone. She also knows that Tony’s halfling is freaked out by goblins, so she decides to drop some clues to the goblin infested ruins to the northwest. She will also generate a village when the PCs are ready to head that way.
That initial work by Brie and her players is all that is needed to kick off a campaign. There are random tables in Forbidden Lands to generate dozens of castles, dungeons, and villages. Brie also has the kickstarter hardcover The Spire of Quetzel with adventure sites by OSR writers like Patrick Stuart and Chris McDowall. When it becomes available it adds four more adventure sites.
For less than $46 ($59 with USA shipping), a GM can kick off a campaign using the Forbidden Lands boxed set. Her players will have several kin and professions to choose from, plenty of gear, monsters to overcome, unique magic items to find, and eventually strongholds to command. Additional adventure and extras support is already available with more on the way. The Blood Mist has lifted, go explore the Forbidden Lands!
This article was contributed by Charles Dunwoody as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. Please note that Charles is a participant in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to DriveThruRPG. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
Forbidden Lands uses the Year Zero rules previously reviewed. New rule options include talents with three tiers, dice up to d12 for powerful magic effects, and monsters with six attack options. Get started with the free quickstart or PDF. Availabe in print is the Forbidden Lands box set or start with all the options including cards, custom dice, a GM screen, and a hardcover adventure with the Forbidden Lands Raven Bundle. Or simply pick up Raven’s Purge or the Raven's Purge PDF later if desired.
Kin include the standard fantasy folk along with goblins, orcs, and wolfkin. Eight professions include the hunter who is useful for surviving the wilds and the peddler who ensures that hard earned treasures sell high in town and can pull all kinds of needed gear from his pack.
As an example, Chris creates a wolfkin fighter, Tony a halfling rogue, and Beth a Meromannian dwarf sorcerer of the path of stone. Brie, the GM, talks with the players and they decide to place the Hollows, their starting village, in southeast Yendra south of the Shroud (forest) near all of the character’s homelands. Forbidden Lands has a full color hex map (double sided) with stickers for specific locations. Brie removes the sticker for the Hollows and places it on a village symbol at the mouth of the river flowing from Lake Mill.
Beth has a concern that her sorcerer begins with no Willpower points and can’t cast spells immediately. Brie explains that Willpower is generated by pushing the characters (rerolling) and can be quickly earned in game. And holding a stronghold generates Willpower as well. (If you do not like this approach, consider starting each PC with 1 Willpower with the GM getting Willpower for NPCs equal to all the PCs’ Willpower combined.)
Brie decides to place the castle adventure site of Weatherstone 50 kilometers south of the Hollows. She places a sticker for Weatherstone over the castle symbol on her map. Brie knows that the scorpion beast of Weatherstone is deadly with a whipping tail, roar, poison, and more threats. Brie decides that Beth’s dwarf’s spell dust from the deep works in Weatherstone in case a retreat is needed.
Brie decides to start with the adventurers half way to Weatherstone pursuing rumors from a tired treasure hunter and starting with a random encounter perhaps flagellants or the dwarf balloon pilot from the GM’s Guide. She starts planting clues leading to Raven’s Purge in Weatherstone. She also knows that Tony’s halfling is freaked out by goblins, so she decides to drop some clues to the goblin infested ruins to the northwest. She will also generate a village when the PCs are ready to head that way.
That initial work by Brie and her players is all that is needed to kick off a campaign. There are random tables in Forbidden Lands to generate dozens of castles, dungeons, and villages. Brie also has the kickstarter hardcover The Spire of Quetzel with adventure sites by OSR writers like Patrick Stuart and Chris McDowall. When it becomes available it adds four more adventure sites.
For less than $46 ($59 with USA shipping), a GM can kick off a campaign using the Forbidden Lands boxed set. Her players will have several kin and professions to choose from, plenty of gear, monsters to overcome, unique magic items to find, and eventually strongholds to command. Additional adventure and extras support is already available with more on the way. The Blood Mist has lifted, go explore the Forbidden Lands!
This article was contributed by Charles Dunwoody as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. Please note that Charles is a participant in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to DriveThruRPG. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
