Continuing our series of Monday reviews, we have 21 Freaky Forest Encounters* by Dimitri Lambermont and Remko van der Heul and art by Wouter Florusse!
All titles that are part of this series are ones that we think highly of and have found great uses for! And, they’re ones we hope you’ll enjoy too!
This supplement, in particular, we think will work great for one-on-one play since it’s so flexible and includes lots of scaling options for DMs!
The Review
First, as I’m sure is obvious by the cover, this supplement is positively GORGEOUS! The art and graphics throughout are lovely and really add to the mood of the encounters.
Second, I love the amount of direction for DMs, very Goldilocks-y. There’s guidance for when to use a particular encounter with suggested read-aloud text and ideas about scaling and adaptation, but it still feels very flexible, which I really appreciate as a DM. Some of the more complicated encounters have suggestions for things to remind your PCs of as the encounter escalates.
One of the things I found most interesting and unique in this supplement was the flexibility with the creatures in the encounters.
The creators have provided a number of creatures that could be subbed in and out with one another, so if you don’t have a particular supplement, you could pull from something you do have. This is great as it really increases the use-value of the product since you could use even the same encounters multiple times with the same party provided a couple tweaks were made to keep things fresh.
There are a few encounters that use creatures from books I’m not sure everyone would have, like Tales from the Yawning Portal and Tomb of Annihilation, but I think there’s only one or two encounters that call for stat blocks that would be rarer without a more standard option also provided.
21 Freaky Forest Encounters includes two new monsters—the Forest Devil and the Demon of Pestilence—that are amazing, both in terms of the art and the funtionality, and I can’t wait to throw them into a game! There are also some really neat magical items throughout, including one that’s like a flashlight but adapted for a fantasy setting, which is probably my favorite.
The NPCs set up in the encounters are vibrant and interesting as well! Anytime you get to incorporate a bard named Lark Giggleheart, you’re having a great day as a DM!
You can read the first in our new series of Monday adventure and supplement reviews on Ulraunt’s Guide to the Planes: The Shadowfell, here! We hope you enjoy these posts, and we’d love to hear your thoughts and comments below!
Coming up soon, Uncaged Anthology: Volumes 1 and 2, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Curse of Strahd, Monsters of the Old World, and Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus.
You can also check out our review of the D&D Essentials Kit and our comparison between the Essentials Kit and the Starter Set!
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