Alternative forests

[scalydemon]

What are some ideas for non (normal)tree forests?

Mushroom forests - what are some cool ideas for these?

Here are some others I had in mind. If you have any please chime in or adding ideas to what these might entail/ideas for them

Kelp forest (underwater area most likely, but may exist on land?)

Hair forest (back of gigantic beast or similar, live or dead?)

Petrified forest (some broken, gnarled, cyclopean, odd varying colors)

[Scott Anderson]

A forest where the trees grow 100' during the day, and wilt away to nothing at night

A forest where the leaves are really butterflies. Walking through the forest continually stirs up the leaves above your heads so you can never truly hide.

Hanging gardens in a geodesic dome six miles across.

A lava flooded plain, now hardened basalt, bedecked with geysers of all sizes firing off at random intervals. Or seemingly-random.

[Radio Dask]

Where there was once a forest of towering and stout trees lies the tangled mess of their giant roots, stretching for dozens of miles. The mass of rotting wood has attracted all kinds of monstrous scavenging insects. How were such imposing trees felled all at once, and by whom?

I've used drifting spore-clouds for mushroom forests in my campaign. Those who don't take shelter from them may find various fungi sprouting up from beneath their skin over the next few days...

[tetramorph]

I love these kind of ideas for their creative and fictional value.

But I have found gaming this stuff difficult.

There is nothing more boring to players, and me as their ref, than just some hazard they can't escape or figure out.

How would these ideas contribute to the game? How could the players game a mushroom forest?

I'm asking sincerely. I am interested in how you guys do these kinds of creative things.

Fight on!

[Scott Anderson]

Window dressing. I could see a little bit of gamability to any of them. But it's mostly just wondrous environs. That's important too.

[murquhart72]

How about a forest of giant trees whose roots entwine to the point where not only is the forest sentient, but it's root structure make up a mega dungeon from grown wood rather than placed stone bricks! Think of the possibilities...

[scalydemon]

Jul 28, 2017 7:18:41 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

I love these kind of ideas for their creative and fictional value.

But I have found gaming this stuff difficult.

There is nothing more boring to players, and me as their ref, than just some hazard they can't escape or figure out.

How would these ideas contribute to the game? How could the players game a mushroom forest?

I'm asking sincerely. I am interested in how you guys do these kinds of creative things.

Fight on!

I think of these more as areas in a hexcrawl (or my preference in a point to point hexcrawl). Not hazards but areas that the party would pass through or have reason to go to.
Reasons to travel could be rumor tables, a quest, a job they are travelling to on behalf of an important NPC, following a treasure map etc etc.

The area would have it's own wandering monster table and some possible unique encounters associated with it.

On top of that with some DM skill it could be described to the players in a theatre of the mind style and make it come alive in the minds of everyone. Much more interesting than travelling through a normal forest and describing a couple types of trees etc.

[howandwhy99]

Jul 28, 2017 7:18:41 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

I love these kind of ideas for their creative and fictional value.

But I have found gaming this stuff difficult.

There is nothing more boring to players, and me as their ref, than just some hazard they can't escape or figure out.

How would these ideas contribute to the game? How could the players game a mushroom forest?

I'm asking sincerely. I am interested in how you guys do these kinds of creative things.

Fight on!

I think one of the biggest design elements about Dungeons & Dragons is scaling. D&D is all "beer & pretzels" until you start to scale. Beer & Pretzels meaning it isn't insanely precise in its simulation, but rather a fairly abstract and easily playable design - (i.e. a simple game design challenging players who manipulate it in order to achieve objectives within.)

However, zoom in or out at any scale of the game and you should find more details of a game design to play. Well, mostly. IMO default D&D does have a "smallest scale" and "biggest scale" the players can affect in their universe. But scaling remains a big design element nonetheless.

Forests are really big, so you only need to account for them in the game at large scales. If you play Outdoor Survival, you go through forests. If you add the above creative forests to your OS rules, they change the game in potentially new and interesting ways. Ways you can measure for difficulty within the already balanced OS system.

But yet, players most commonly engage with the game at human-scale, the default scale. This means a skirmish level map at indoor or outdoor scales. No forests really exist at these scales, but the PCs can certainly be inside one. What actually comprises the larger scale versions of these forests are found at the human level (at least to some degree). That means Giant Mushroom Trees, for instance.

Honestly, giant mushroom trees are sort of window dressing as mentioned. But only so much as are regular trees, big rocks, wood or stone walls, earthen ground, and so on. They inform the current situation at this scale, but are hardly a challenge in and of themselves.

The real interesting parts in D&D are what challenge the PCs, what their goals are. And the components above can used to design challenges where the designs of those components matter. For example, how easy is it to cut down a giant mushroom tree? How fast do they decay? Can they be eaten for nutrition? Some mushrooms induce hallucinations, what about these? What physiological effects (a very small scale) may arise from the PCs' perspective when they eat a Giant Mushroom? All kinds of stuff like that would go in their statblock.

The fascinating thing about D&D is what you can do with stuff, not what you can gloss over IMO. Gnome homes, ogre caps, fairies on a tripped out diet, spore season, giant fairie rings, and the giant creatures who eat these things (squirrels, rodents, bats, and boar), perhaps even a snailman or two.

[tetramorph]

howandwhy99, very helpful response, man, thanks.

I tried to do Outdoor Survival as a campaign about a year back into the hobby and I had real trouble learning the hard way that the level of scale for D&D is skirmish.

It makes me think of some other questions to ask, but I won't hijack this thread, I will start a new one soon.

Thanks!

[DungeonDevil]

Kinda inspired by a scene from Fantastic Planet: on an otherwise featureless plain crystalline growths appear at dawn (or whatever time you prefer). The growths can grow into treelike structures. By midmorning, or noon, the crystals become fragile and shatter, becoming a hazard to anyone below. Also, if someone whistles at the wrong frequency -- or talks a little too loudly -- the crystal-trees break apart!

[Porphyre]

Járnviðr in norse mythology is a forest of iron trees ,populated by trolls and giant wolves. 

But it also reminds me of this : hyperallergic.com/312318/a-nuclear-warning-designed-to-last-10000-years/

the unnatral forest could be the remnant of some very ancient evil /lost technology . 

[Vile Traveller]

I've always wanted to use the Toxic Jungle from Nausicaä (Valley of the Wind) in a game. Giant insects, giant robots and all. Maybe not the machinery, though.

[Porphyre]

Jul 29, 2017 1:42:11 GMT -6 Vile Traveller said:

I've always wanted to use the Toxic Jungle from Nausicaä (Valley of the Wind) in a game. Giant insects, giant robots and all. Maybe not the machinery, though.

A forest made out of giants bones ...

[talysman]

Don't forget the forest of trees that bleed and scream from Dante's Inferno.

[DungeonDevil]

Trees that throw apples at girls from Kansas?

[Starbeard]

A mushroom forest:



The forest consists of a wide variety toadstools and fungi, ranging in size from normal to tree-sized. "Normal" flora for the habitat can also be found at times, though mushrooms are clearly the dominate type. Because there is little no foliage to block sight, visibility is usually much better than in normal forests, roughly the equivalent of a deciduous or mixed forest in winter.



Foraging in the Mushroom Forest

Foraging takes 3 turns (30 minutes). When foraging for green plants or trees, there is usually a 75% chance that 1d6 of specimens can be found, of types appropriate to the climate. Otherwise, the referee should roll 2d6 and consult the "foraging encounter table"; blank results should be generated and recorded for consistency and future reference.



Foraging "Encounter" Table: mushroom forest (2d6)

2. __________

3. __________

4. __________

5. __________

6. __________

7. __________

8. __________

9. __________

10. __________

11. __________

12. __________



Random Mushroom Forest Specimens

1. Type (d4)

1. Gilled mushroom
   
2. Tooth fungus (skip step 2)
3. Mold (skip step 2)
   
4. Shelf fungus
   

2. Cap (d6)

1. Flat
2. Bell shaped
3. Funnel shaped
4. Ball shaped
5. Round
6. Conical

3. Spores (d6)

1. None visible
2. None visible
3. Powdery/dusty
4. Creamy
5. Hairy
6. Sticky

4. Colour pattern (d6)

1. Solid colour
   
2. Spotted (white with one colour of spots)
   
3. Sunburst (roll twice for inner and outer colour)
   
4. White underside with solid top
   
5. Solid colour with circles of another colour
   
6. Striped
   

5. Colours (d8)

1. Red
2. Orange
3. Green
4. Blue
5. Purple
6. Brown
7. White/grey
8. Black

6. Size (or relative area covered) (d4)

1. Large tree-sized
2. Small tree-sized
3. Shrubbery-sized
4. Normal sized

7. Properties (2d6)

2. Treat as random potion or scroll 
3. Healing
4. Hallucinatory
5. Antidote
6. Edible
7. Edible
8. Edible
9. Stomach sickness, but edible
10. Mildly poisonous
11. Deathly poisonous
12. Acid

[barrataria]

Jul 28, 2017 7:18:41 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

I love these kind of ideas for their creative and fictional value.

But I have found gaming this stuff difficult.

There is nothing more boring to players, and me as their ref, than just some hazard they can't escape or figure out.

If you don't routinely include nonthreatening plants or "nothing" encounters, as soon as you do include a dangerous plant or a plant that hides a monster the players will immediately go to Defcon 1 and run away or totally ignore them.

It also helps break up the routine of overland encounters, especially if your players are curious enough to investigate/fool with/taste/interact with the plant/item/location. Every so often one of them should include some random (minor) treasure, and more often than that, some random piece of campaign flavor- an old statue, exotic skeleton, etc.. Giving your players things to interact with gives them the opportunity to in fact interact with things.

[Starbeard]

Aug 2, 2017 15:53:38 GMT -6 barrataria said:

Jul 28, 2017 7:18:41 GMT -6 tetramorph said:

I love these kind of ideas for their creative and fictional value.

But I have found gaming this stuff difficult.

There is nothing more boring to players, and me as their ref, than just some hazard they can't escape or figure out.

If you don't routinely include nonthreatening plants or "nothing" encounters, as soon as you do include a dangerous plant or a plant that hides a monster the players will immediately go to Defcon 1 and run away or totally ignore them.

It also helps break up the routine of overland encounters, especially if your players are curious enough to investigate/fool with/taste/interact with the plant/item/location. Every so often one of them should include some random (minor) treasure, and more often than that, some random piece of campaign flavor- an old statue, exotic skeleton, etc.. Giving your players things to interact with gives them the opportunity to in fact interact with things.

I've always enjoyed using the Ready Ref Sheets to embue overland travel with cosmetic scenery, for these exact reasons. If an encounter is rolled, then the dressing can help determine the context of the encounter; and if no encounter is rolled, then the dressing can stimulate the possibility of an encounter that would otherwise be impossible to generate through the normal methods.

For example, when the party finishes its daily move, I might roll on the tables to discover that they have come to 1) a garden-sized depression, 2) next to a streamlet, 3) with wild lilies covering the area, and 4) a couple of buzzards are hunting overhead. From this they may decide that they don't want to camp here, since there is no cover against the chill winds, and testing the ground shows that the field is waterlogged from the stream.

And so they search the area for another half hour, make a further encounter check, and roll up a new location: a copse of oak with evidence of badgers. "No thanks," they say, "nasty little critters who steal food, we'll never get a good night's sleep with them around."

They search for a third site, luckily passing another encounter check. It is now twilight and they must save vs exhaustion for travelling and setting up camp in the dark. Fortunately, they have come across a small outcropping of rock in the hillside, forming a natural draw (a "cul-de-sac" as it's called in the RRS); the area is littered with Ash and berries of some kind, and there are plenty of small birds. Now this looks like a place to stay! They set up camp inside the draw, against the rocks, and finally get some shuteye.

During the midnight watch they encounter wild cats, who of course are perched above the rocks, allowing them to leap down onto the party in ambush.

[Finarvyn]

These are all really good ideas. A little trippy, but could make for some fun settings.

[Vile Traveller]

Another one I've always liked was the petrified forest on Lobis Loyo (a.k.a. Warzone 18)' where everything including animals was turned to stone by a Kappa bomb. If you haven't read Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson I envy you - go do it now.