The Enchanted Forest modular

[Nychthemeron]

Love the way these look Nychthemeron, would be a joy to play on, looking forward to seeing everything all laid out together.

I would be sorely out of trees if I would put all of the forest together... and of course that's not even the purpose. I developed the set with a line-of-sight mentality. Tiles that the group has passed, are removed from the board.

Here is, however, our first example game (well, part of it) in pictures.

TRIAL RUN: The Expected Journey

Esmyralda, Knight Errant of Bretonnia to her own words, but actually a runaway noble daughter gone adventuring (knight), Boris of the World's Pain Brotherhood (monk) and Oric Ironhead (dwarf) continue towards their goal, the ruined dwarf-home at the borders of Loren. They depart from the inn where they met each other, and sally off into the forest. The innkeeper looks after the distancing group, shaking his head. Poor buggers...



TURN 1: We are using a bit modded moving system here. The characters are moving with a roll of 1d6 in the wilderness. If they follow the road, they may advance one stone slab (despite their small difference in size) for each dot. If they move off-road, they can advance half an inch for each dot rolled. Orric takes lead (6) and scouts for the group, while Esmyralda (3) and Boris (1) walk with a slower pace. Random roll reveals no random encounters for the first two tiles.

TURN 2: Esmyralda (2) and Boris (2) keep moving behind, while Oric (4) scouts ahead. Our dwarf searches the environment, finding some gold coins from an old boot. No encounters.

TURN 3: Boris (4) and Esmyralda (5) have apparently decided that they need to catch up with the dwarf. Good thing, too, for Oric Ironhead is the pathfinder of the group: he at least claims to know where he is going in Loren. This works just like the torch-bearer rule in WHQ. If at any time, any character is farther than 10 steps (or 10 inches) away from the pathfinder, he is LOST into the woods. (There is a random roll that defines what happens to him and when or if he catches up with the rest of the group. Anyway, Oric advances with a steady pace ahead of the group (3).



TURN 4: Boris (6) and Esmyralda (3) move along the third tile, while Oric (5) scouts the fourth. This tile reveals a forked path. The group decides the check the path leading to west first. No encounters.

TURN 5: Oric is apparently confused by the fork, for his advance slows (1). Boris catches up with him (4), while Esmyralda guards the rear (3).

TURN 6: Our Iron-headed dwarf moves to the fifth tile first (4). Boris (3) and Esmyralda (2) are still on the fourth. Encounter triggers on the fifth tile. Two wolves appear from the woods, appearing from a randomly defined corner. They prepare to attack the travelers. Oh, the excitement.



What happens to our brave fellows? Will they loot phearsome treasures or end up in wolf-bellies? To be continued!

[Daxio]

Thanks Nychthemeron loved the whole feel of the enchanted forest, understand how you are using the tiles now; good idea. Interesting to have movement random, could certainly lead to situations where the party are more separate and open to ambush. I like the idea of the party split. Means players have to think differently/creatively about how they cope with appearing monsters. Cheers for ideas

[benvoliothefirst]

I don't usually post in threads with "little tiny pictures" because I'm too damn lazy to click through to see the big versions... but your awesome terrain has forced my hand. Great work! I love all the details.

[Shas'El Tael]

Really liking the tiled forest idea, was wondering how to tackle outdoors stuff for awhile. Was thinking of variations on Dungeon layouts in WHQst, but reinventing it as such certainly would be easier and treat it as a unique environment all its own.

[Nychthemeron]

Thanks, guys. Quite the compliment for the humble project. Glad it inspires, though! Maybe I will continue it with a piece or a few some time again. Been busy with a bigger building and these beer-infused bearded fellows...

[Pazuzu]

Yep

Excellent, makes me want to do some sceneries again.
You make my day

[Nychthemeron]

Hey, everyone! Although I haven't really continued the Enchanted Forest anymore, here is something pretty close to it. This is a 1/4 of a coffee table -sized Warhammer board (or just a display board on its own) I recently made. I was looking at pieces of natural bark fallen to the ground when snows melted, and I was wondering what kind of rocky terrain they would make.

So, this is supposed to be rocky tundra in the highlands somewhere. It is early winter, and winds move the fresh snows circularly around the plains.

Phase 1: Bark, sand and glue




Phase 2: Black undercoat applied by brush




Phase 3: Drybrushing rock and frozen mud




Phase 4: Applying and adminstrating snow.












Attendum: Spare Citadel Woods base painted and snowed to match the terrain

[Harry]

Don't get me wrong ... it is magnificent ... but if you had just included a few stepping stones.

[Nychthemeron]

Heh, I suppose I could have. One thing that I may still do to make this compatible with the Enchanted Forest is to include a uniting piece between the forest and the plains. Partially snow-covered rocky pass or something...

[Daxio]

Hi Nychthemeron, was wondering how you will control movement in your tundra waste? Will the characters just move the equivalent of 4 ish squares or have you got another method? I tried a wilderness game once and the characters just took themselves through the middle of a 2 foot wide board to get to the next section, it felt like they needed some route to follow, but how do you create that in wilderness or tundra?
Love the boards by the way, they do look really good, keep it up fella :-)

[benvoliothefirst]

Hard to believe that thing is just made up of rocks and sand... looks like a professional battle board. And the huge pics make it easy to see all the glorious detail!

How can I buy one?!

[Nychthemeron]

Hi Nychthemeron, was wondering how you will control movement in your tundra waste? Will the characters just move the equivalent of 4 ish squares or have you got another method? I tried a wilderness game once and the characters just took themselves through the middle of a 2 foot wide board to get to the next section, it felt like they needed some route to follow, but how do you create that in wilderness or tundra?
Love the boards by the way, they do look really good, keep it up fella :-)

If it was used in Quest, I think standard 4-or-so square movement would be the best. Or if one wants a more gameplayish element, perhaps 1d6 (+1 or +2 with the right class or equiptment) squares? Keep in mind this wasn't originally made for the Enchanted Forest set, but for a Warhammer or display board. Thanks for the comment!

Hard to believe that thing is just made up of rocks and sand... looks like a professional battle board. And the huge pics make it easy to see all the glorious detail!

How can I buy one?!

Sand and tree bark, my friend. They're dried tree bark, the cliff pieces, not rocks. Thank you for the all too kind comment. When the board is ready, it will probably be for sale, in Finland. But I have the feeling it wouldn't take international shipping too well.

[Daxio]

Cheers fella, its a smashing board, looks good for whatever you use it for :-) (I need to read more carefully :-))

[Nychthemeron]

Being out of storage space in my current appartment, I've decided to END the Enchanted Forest project here and I'm selling it to the highest bidder. Maybe I will build a new one some day, when I have more room for stuff like this. But for now, something has to go.

If you are interested in this forest set, give me a private message. I'm unsure of how good idea it is to send such a big package overseas, but I'm happy to check the shipment prices for you.

The sold set includes 8 15x15 cm forest pieaces, 6 of them with a road, 4 river pieces, one of them with the bridge, 2 objective room pieces (rocky hill and dungeon entrance). The set comes with 3 standard Citadel Woods trees, 3 scratch-build stone piles that can be used in place of a tree, and I even include one unpainted Citadel Woods base plus a pile of unpainted leaves and branches. Two styrofoam cliffs/mountain sides you've seen in the pictures also come with it. I can e-mail you the pictures, but all can be found from this thread as well.

As the concluding thoughts of the Enchanted Forest: I felt that it was a project successfully pulled off. Forest can be made a great environment for dungeon crawl -type games, and this thematic change can bring a sense of freshness to dungeon games, even though the mechanics stay the same. While making the set, I got tons of ideas for different scenarios and rules variants.

Thanks for the support and comments to all who have posted here. See you around in other threads and plogs!

[Richard]

Sorry to hear this Nychthemeron your work was really great to watch grow. Wish you the best in future projects.

[Daemonslave]

Sad news indeed. I really liked your outdoor whq idea and the stuff you were making

[Daxio]

Here here a great loss to the community, I have been intrigued by your forest Quest stuff.

[Nychthemeron]

Thank you, everyone. And do not despair; I promise to consider forest quest 2.0 once I have more room for hobby stuffs. Don't know when that will be, though.

If someone wants to own this particular and one-of-its-kind set (despite it being a storage-space eating monster), bidding is still open with a private message! I'd hope it to see some good use in someone's shelf or gaming table.

[Daniel36]

A shame to hear you have to sell the enchanted forest, though I am sure somebody will be willing to take it over from you, because it is simply stunning! Your new board looks great too. Would work really well for Frostgrave, a game that takes up very little space and is a lot of fun to boot!

[Nychthemeron]

Way ahead of you with that thought, Daniel! Frostgrave is likely where I'm trying my hand next, and indeed by expanding that wintry board a bit. Nothing as big or complex as my Mordheim board, but a little atmospheric Frostgrave platform would be nice. I'm pretty excited about it.

And yep, guys - this forest modular is still on sale. Go grab it before I have to list it in e-bay!