Evocative Environments: Forest.
Okay. Hear me out. Forests are cool.
Have you ever been deep in the woods? Have you ever gone so far into the forest, off the path, away from the road or any kind of house, cabin etc that all you can hear is your own heartbeat? Pretty soon the birds, maybe some small animals, and the wind whispering through the nearby greenery comes into focus. I find just plain nature evocative.
I’m from Iowa, which isn’t exactly known for vast tracts of woodlands. What clumps of trees we do have around these parts are usually near a body of water such as a river or lake. We usually have a copse of trees here and there between corn fields. Sometimes a tiny patch of woods sprouts up next to the creek or a farm pond if we’re lucky.
I envy Canadians with their large tracts of unclaimed land in the North. Heck, even the Northwestern USA is pretty nice in places. I look forward to trips into Minnesota because they have lakes and trees. I like trees. Trees hold a deep spiritual meaning for me. I find timelessness consciousness of trees evocative.
Here’s where the moccasins meet the soft pine needles of the forest floor.
One piece of creative writing advice we hear a lot is: write what you know. Since I grew up in a hunting and fishing family, I’ve spent my share of time outdoors. Nowadays I just go to the lake to get some fresh air and meditate. Once in a very great while I go to the river to reconnect with nature even more.
For me this translates to a lot of woodland encounters in my fantasy RPG games. There’s always something deep in the woods to be explored. I love having Druids, Rangers, and Hunters in my sessions. To me the forests, lakes, and rivers of my worlds have a deeper symbolic meaning in a lot of cases.
I ran one campaign where major bodies of land were lorded over by powerful spirits- usually dragons. I plan to bring that back for my Dragonbane campaigns. Other places, even cities and towns, might have something such as a demon, an elemental, or even the undead as their representative. I think the Lorax would have commanded more respect if he was a mountain of muscle, scales, wings and could breathe fire (or acid, corrosive gas, lightning, etc)
I’m looking forward, as much as Western medieval fantasy makes me cringe at times, to running a campaign that reimagines what medieval Europe must have been like. I would love to have explored the completely untamed Schwarzwald. Trees that went up forever as far as the eye can see over rolling hills, next to rivers and up the side of mountains just blows my mind. I can’t wait.
Plus there will be dungeons, witches, and duckies. I mean it is Dragonbane after all. I’d be remiss without Mallards, beautiful but haunting Swan Maidens, and angry geese. (Venomous, sabertoothed, primal, vampiric weregeese, perhaps.) Many creatures of myth and legend would live deep in a forest untouched and unseen by Kin or other bipedal intelligent folk for hundreds of years. Perhaps dragons, demons, elementals, or spirits hid their secrets there a millennium ago.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 