DEAR PLAYERS,
Hey, welcome to my mini woodland campaign!
Imagine a forest, at the edge of a village. The trees are dark and green, the wind whispers in the branches. There's a coating of leaves across the forest floor, with brambles and underbrush at every turn. For the first hundred feet or so, it seems to be a perfectly mundane and ordinary forest. But to the animals living in it, it is utterly massive, and every turn brings the danger of a fox, or a snare. And as you walk deeper, the wood gets wilder, and in the dark hollows of the deepest part of these fairytale woods, magic grows like a fungus.
The enemies you face are small, from a human perspective. But to you, they are massive and constant threats.
The goal isn't to defeat these dangers, however, so much as it is to avoid them. Your lives up until this point have been focused on building a thriving community, making alliances with friendly neighbours, and either fleeing/defending yourself from mild threats! A stray dog is loose in the wood, lure it away! The hollow needs more candles, go steal some from the human cottages! Sure, your parents were probably eaten by a bear. Sure, last winter you nearly starved. Nature is hostile. But there is jam, and cakes, and your little bed is a sardine-tin full of moss, motherfucker!
We're starting at level 3, and going to level 8 maximum. Maybe 10 sessions? Eh, depends. Anyway, this is a little woodland adventure based on the likes of: Wind in the Willows, Beatrix Potter, Watership Down, Redwall, Guardians of Gahoole. It's essentially the same deal as dimension 20's Burrows End, if you've ever seen that! I would consider it a deep personal favor if you read the Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Or watch scenes from Burrows End. If you do, you start the game with Inspiration!!!
You are all little animals in a fairytale woodland, where the witch's hut blows smoke against the wind, and where the toadstool ring leads to the realm of fairy, and just south of which, the human village sits, and all who live there know never to go into the dark and dangerous Wildwood.
It's essentially a low magic, 'generic fantasy world' from the perspective of the animals. Genre-wise, think heroic fantasy, but really dark and dangerous at the low points. 100% classic fairytales.
There's magic items, but they're appropriate to your size. A magic needle would be akin to a +1 rapier for a mouse - and it casts Mending as an inherent spell! Whereas a wolverine would probably wield an actual halfling battleaxe, which is fucking terrifying if you think about it. 'Mouse to Wolverine' is also pretty much the size range of animals, btw! No insects, no fish, no domesticated animals, like dogs or cats. Anything that lives in a place where winter brings snow works fine, since that's the classic fairytale vibe.
Y'all start with a magic item of that sort, btw.
Also! Trigger warnings for: fire, infectious disease, zombies, game of thrones type drama, fey cruelties ('awakened animals' kept as pets), gods and divinity, and general body horror.
There are three ways we can do racial statblocks, which I've outlined in the 'Animal Options' tab section. Go check it out, there's some good options there.
Class-wise, fairly anything's on the table? I am going to say, if it's third party you need to give me at least a couple days to look it over. Remember that it's fantasy, but also you are animals, so anything that plays on the contrast of that is very on theme. Maybe your monk was taught by a wandering master turtle. Maybe your knight served as the guard of a noble mouse princess. Maybe your cleric lived in a cloistered abbey of bats, and there learnt to worship darkness. There's some backstories in the available section! Pick one if you need to! They come with free feats!
See the lore section for options on gods, and general world info!
Hit me up with any questions.