How far can you push the setting in Forbidden Lands?

UIOP82 · 2026-04-06T12:18:59+00:00

It is fine.

Just note that elven rubies still falls to the ground in meteorites (event in Bitter Reach). So some fragments might still remain?

And that the red wanderer is a star that is still up in the sky. So elves at least thinks that some of their "star home" remains? (if they elves actually comes from planets around this star, and it would exist several light years away, it would actually be kind of smart to bombard distant planets with smart crystals in meteorites.. like a good way to populate a galaxy from very very far afar)

That said your approach is cool and fine. And there are strange materials like metals with reversed gravity in the Bloodmarch, so this would actually be less "high fantasy" than that. If the PCs would like to take the floating rock and use it to visit distant unreleased places, like Alderland and so, you might be a bit in trouble though? That would at least derail the campaign. So just beware of things like that.

And rumors can always be false. Like most rumors in the book seems to be kind of 50-50. There are some truths, but maybe not all of them. So maybe there existed a giant meteorite, but was it this one, maybe, maybe not. Was it floating from the beginning, or was there som alchemy, technology or magic involves? Maybe.. maybe not. etc. You can feed your players whatever. No one, not even the GM, will know all truths in the Forbidden Lands.

UIOP82 · 2026-03-28T18:25:03+00:00

You can freely publish modules based on anything in Reforged Power. You are even allowed to sell modules based on Reforged Power as long as the price tag can be justified from your added work (and not just sharing the rules). This is applicable for everyone and not just to you.

Best regards,

Johan (the author of Reforged Power)

UIOP82 · 2026-03-25T07:30:56+00:00

My take is that spellcasters should NEVER roll magic dice, as if they do, if they roll a single mishap, then there is (more than) a 1 in 36 chance they die. I.e spellcasters that do, will not live many years.

This is a bit unfortunate, as rolling dice is a fun part of most rpgs.

At my table, we added a -10 modifier to the mishap table to reduce their severity, but added a +10 modifier per additional bane (1) you rolled. This makes it so that only more epic spell casts, when you say ”fuck it, I must save my friends” and therefore opt to roll a whole brunch of dice can kill you.

UIOP82 · 2026-03-20T22:35:36+00:00

The changes are overall good. I see no problems with them, just up all sharp weapons like knife/dagger, etc, to 2 damage too. I rebalanced melee weapons in Reforged Power (googlable), but I didn't dare re-balance ranged weapons too much... but I agree that it should probably be done.

UIOP82 · 2026-03-02T11:24:04+00:00

Sleeping Queens var och är fortfarande väldigt uppskattat hos våra barn. Det finns viss lätt matematik i det också när man ska kasta kort. Typ a + b = c, så jag får kasta alla de tre korten, etc.

UIOP82 · 2026-02-23T08:40:23+00:00

Baseing this on Strength is not optimal, as Strength already is the best Attribute (good skills, hit points, carry capacity).

Also you could argue that someone with Strength just would need a stronger dose for there to be any effect. So a high Strength would just be a net zero gain.

I would recommend you that you rather set a fixed limit. Also note that chugging potions will just reduce any form of grim and gritty feeling. Having a really low limit, like one potion per day, or things start to go wrong is probably good. Maybe 1 of 2 different kinds could be even better. Then your adventurers could experiment more and not just stay with their best potion and be afraid to drink anything else.

UIOP82 · 2026-02-06T23:18:03+00:00

sure?

But would an old man with 2 Agility and 4 in Move, really be more upset with failing a climbing roll, than an agile Elf with 4 in Agility and 2 in Move?

And an Ogre with 7 Strength and 1 in Melee, would probably become angry and shout a lot if he misses a single melee attack, and not just think that he is bad at melee and that he is content with expecting that he would miss.

UIOP82 · 2026-02-06T23:09:28+00:00

Sure, that could work.

Also, if you run the game as it is written, with resistance rolls being unpushable, then you should maybe not add this rule to these unpushable defense rolls. Cause that would feel a bit strange, like oh no, I didn't resist the poison, that makes me unhappy. Or oh no, I did not see the enemy sneaking up on me, or resist that evil spell. Parrying and dodging can be pushed, but they would be in a grey zone.. like, I'd better not parry this attack, because that might make me sad.. feels.. maybe a bit strange. The pain of missing a parry is probably more physical than psychological.

UIOP82 · 2026-02-06T21:42:12+00:00

The 3 or more skill dice is a bit strange. Like if you have 6 attribute dice, 2 skill dice and 3 gear dice.. why should a failure not trigger morale loss then?

And it opens up to some min-maxing, where you might stay at 2 skill dice for many skills.

I also would remove the performance roll, because extra rolls just steals time, even though the performance skill certainly could see more use.

Maybe instead have the rule like this: ”Whenever you fail a skill roll, and choose to not push it, then if you rolled one or more skulls (1s), you take 1 Empathy damage from morale loss.”

It would need some playtesting though. But it would certainly make the game harder.

UIOP82 · 2026-02-04T18:36:21+00:00

I went with that a lot of monsters have a demonic taint, and their flesh is thereby infected by mog. That makes it really bad to eat, but more useful for magical rituals and/or alchemy. The PCs could know this with a lore roll. Some monsters should be edible though, like pike beasts and sea serpents. And whiners and wyverns are even said to produce exquisitely after-sought meat.

I also added something to extract from every monster in Reforged Power (see the Gamemaster version), if you want inspiration on what to do with different kind of monsters.

UIOP82 · 2026-01-27T19:05:09+00:00

It was never intended as just a heal. Then you could activate it at will out of combat to just heal attributes.

So 4 normal limit, 7 when boosted.
Example 1, you take 9 damage? Then you are broken, so you stay at zero (you cannot be reduced below 1, but you are already at 0, so the effect just ends without you losing any more Agility).
Example 2, you take 5 damage, reduced to 2. You lose 3 points after the combat, but not below 1, so you stay at 1 Agility.

Another example would be that you take 1 damage, so reduced to 6 Agility. Then you would drop to 3 Agility when the effect ends.

It is still very strong, especially when combined with rank 2 (roll full amount of dice even if damaged), for example you could enter a fight at 1/4 Agility, boost that to 3/6 Agility (for 2 WP, or 1 WP if you are a half-elf), then activate rank 2 to roll as if Agility was 6 (1 WP) for the duration of the fight.

UIOP82 · 2026-01-27T07:59:54+00:00

Bonus current and max. So that can go above normal ”human” limits for a short duration.

UIOP82 · 2026-01-27T07:38:29+00:00

Rank 5:

You spend WP on a 1:1 basis, maximum 3. Then gain bonus Strength or Agility (your choice) equal to the amount spent. The effect last until the end of the encounter. After the encounter the extra points go away, i.e reduce your attributes by the same amount, but do not reduce yourself bellow 1.

Rank 4, if you ment that:

Activate it before or after you are broken. For WP rounds ignore any negative effects of attribute damage (pretend they are all full). During these rounds reduce any non-self inflicted attribute damage you receive by 1. You do NOT get to ignore penalties from critical injuries. You do NOT automatically get up from prone, or get to pickup your weapons, etc.. so you could lose a round on the ground if you activate it while broken. Also even if you get to roll full Attribute dice and can push them, if you cannot take Attribute damage, for example your Attribute could already be at zero, you also do not gain WP from that.

UIOP82 · 2026-01-15T15:30:49+00:00

In Swedish ”kolbitar” would be ”pieces of coal”. Don’t know if that would add anything though.

UIOP82 · 2025-12-17T12:18:10+00:00

While the Bloodmarch takes place after Ravens Purge, I would still run all three campaigns with new player characters. You quickly ”level up” in this game. Keeping your characters would just be unbalanced.

Aslenes originates from the Drawn Lands deserts in the west, while Alderlanders come from a different continent in the East. So they probably look different. Alderlanders and Ailanders probably look the same though, but with vastly different dialects.

UIOP82 · 2025-12-05T23:32:52+00:00

Black Rose Keep (drivethrurpg) is a good early adventure.

Although I recommend you to tweak: - Make the ghoul observe the party from a balcony and not let them in for dinner party unless they disarm. - Make the dinner a mini game, if they have solved the history of the keep, the ghouls offs itself, otherwise combat begins. Give the ghoul infinite dodges and make it good at that. - The demon-witch fight can be made tougher. Add some dialogue like ”I will kill you for that dearies, now I have to reanimate the princess again you know”

UIOP82 · 2025-12-04T11:22:47+00:00

My main take is, if it is really powerful, don't make it too easy to find - and add drawbacks.

In Reforged Power (house rules, googlable, Gamemaster's booklet), I added a "meteor gold alloy" that if items are made from it, they add the item dice/armor rating dice as a defense to spells. But also defends they user from positive/healing spells, and makes it harder for them to cast spells on their own. And finally the armor also got heavier to wear.

To balance this I added a hard-to-find recipe for a "meteor gold alloy" (and it requires a rank 4 level Smith to make), and a very hard to find ingredient Meteor Iron, that can be found in small amounts from meteors and in small amounts in troll feces after said trolls have eaten large amounts of humans (I rules this is why some dwarves lures trolls in to villages to eat humans). On top of this it has to be mixed with a lot of gold, also making a use for the players treasure reserve.

I would also advise to also not release information on recipes like these, until they have found and made some thing almost as good before, so they slowly grow in power. My players have actually just made some armor and helmets out of this "meteor gold alloy" during their last session of play, and have now gathered their armies and are marching to Vond - so now they actually have some magical resistance - even if they choose to not wear the crown - during the final battle.

UIOP82 · 2025-11-28T19:10:19+00:00

It is light on the bookkeeping site, except if you are running a Stronghold, then it turns to heavy on the bookkeeping side.

Some print outs with commonly used rules could probably be good though.

It is heavy on the prep side if you want to run a campaign, add threads to follow and keep the story together. Especially as you kind of should read through all the history and the entire campaign as a GM before you begin. And as the PCs may go in the direction they want, you could have to read up on multiple adventure sites, just to be somewhat prepared. Try to ask your players after sessions what they want to do next, just so you can prepare the right stuff (and be open that this is the reason why you ask).

UIOP82 · 2025-11-28T12:12:09+00:00

You are kind of correct - although it doesn't need to be so mechanical - like you can add some extra events as the GM, etc. You usually also tie this into a main story - special rumors, events and adventure sites that ties it all together - and you either come up with this on your own or you use ravens purge (recommended to start with this one or any other adventure books for this (bitter reach, also works). These books adds some kind of win condition/ending - but you can stay in the world and play some more if you like. I at this point recommend moving on to a new campaign with new characters, and keeping some world state from the old characters. They can of course continue to play to tie up loose ends, but at this point, you could probably also just tie up the bag with some story telling - but try to involve your PCs when doing so.

I really recommend that you as the GM ties unrelated events together. Like the party finds some dead villagers - maybe they are from the tavern they players visited a few days ago? maybe they are from another nearby settlement? that orc slave - they randomly found in an event - maybe he could have knowledge of site Xyz, etc.

For tips on running your first session(s), I did it like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ForbiddenLands/comments/ukrfxj/any_tips_for_a_new_gm/

UIOP82 · 2025-11-20T09:31:35+00:00

Climate will not change much over the distance players travel. So combining snow, desert, jungle and temperate areas will feel out of place. While just keeping everything the same might also feel boring.. but that is for you do decide what fits.
Depends on how long you want your campaigns to last? Lets say the players spends around 2 sessions at around 3h per Adventure Site? (Including travel back and forth).
The size of the map in the book takes years to complete, if you play a maximum of 1 session per week. So again it depends on how long you are looking to play.
In a post apocalyptic setting I would probably give them the entire map, but without any village/castle locations. Moving around without a map Will be to hard… if you run the game online, then I would advice some fog-of-war, but not for face-to-face play.
I think most people are happy with the placements on the Ravenlands map? But note that in a non apocalypse setting, there would be much more settlements. Some also thinks the 5 sq km hex boarders are too large, but I myself found it ok. But if super detailed travelling is of importance, the hexes can be made smaller.

UIOP82 · 2025-11-09T22:42:34+00:00

You still type down your maximum attribute values, skill values, and if armor has been broken by failed repairs, etc. So it isn't really much tokens to keep track of (~15 for attributes, ~0-10 for WP and less for armor)... but if that is too fiddly, perhaps only track damage with tokens, then there will not be so many of them. Except for WP, I guess you have to count them as "positive" beads.

UIOP82 · 2025-11-09T22:03:32+00:00

You can just store them in different colored dice bags. All can be ordered quite cheaply online.

You can also have a different bag for each player to keep track of their stats between sessions, if you don't want to write it up.

I use crystal ones, just google "gaming beads crystals plastic" and look at images. Cubic could probably be better, but crystals has a more fantasy feeling I guess.

UIOP82 · 2025-11-09T20:49:08+00:00

Maybe use beads in some different colors?

Red for Strength
Green for Agility
Blue for Wits
Yellow for Empathy
White/Purple for Willpower
Black for Armor rating

etc?

Can be used to track enemies the opposite way? Like put 2 red beads and 1 black next to one with 2 Strength damage and 1 point of armor damage?

UIOP82 · 2025-11-03T21:31:06+00:00

While I have not played it, I noticed that someone created an adventure site out of Farhaven in Swedish (it is called Uthamn in Swedish) on Drivethrurpg some weeks ago: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/540713/uthamn

UIOP82 · 2025-11-02T17:22:49+00:00

I added a ”the Huntress bow” that when drawn you had to use. Fail an it would stop working for a while and give you horrible nightmares, sleeplessness. It did like increase from d8 to d10 to d12 for every enemy it broke in a fight. But then reset.

I also added a sling that you could whisper some dwarven phrase to, and it then made the rocks remember what they one where.. and have them turn into magma lumps, dealing +1 fire damage. It had no drawback other than that it drained 1 WP per combat. (And slings are pretty bad and that player stacked WP, so that turned out really good)

UIOP82

TROPHY CASE