Epic Encounters: ‘Forest of the Damned’ Unboxing – These Trees Are Angry

The Epic Encounters continue with a new pair of adventures from Steamforged Games. Can you survive this Forest of the Damned?

So the previous set of Epic Encounters had one of my absolute favorites. It’s going to be hard for Steamforged Games to out-do those Steelborn Robot-vibes. With this set they went for the opposite approach — at least in theme. We’re moving away from the cold, machine logic of the Steelborn to the living and feeling Forest of the Damned. And these trees aren’t very happy to see us.

Today, we’re taking a look inside the Forest of the Damned Epic Encounter box. But don’t worry, we’ll be returning very soon to check out the Glade of the Evil Oak, too.

These two boxes can be played as stand alone adventures, one-shot encounters interjected into a campaign, or as a continuous pair of adventures. It’s really up to the GM on how to use them. But you probably knew that already — so let’s check out the insides of this one!

Forest of the Damned Unboxing

I just wanted to stop and admire the box art for a second. The studio quality painted figures look awesome. I also appreciate how eye-catching the bright pink of the Epic Encounters series is. They are really hard to miss when I visit a game store. On to the contents!

Opening this one up you’ll see the miniatures, a flyer, the double-sided battlemat, and (my second favorite thing about the Epic Encounters) the Adventure booklet. Before we get to the miniatures, I did want to take a moment to rave about this Adventure book though.

One Epic Adventure Book

First up, this particular Epic Encounter book was written by Jason Charles Miller. You may have seen some of his work before. Anyhow, he was the special guest writer for this one and his love of gaming/RPGs shows.

Now, I don’t want to show off all the goodies in this adventure. So I’m going to try to avoid spoilers but there will be some anyhow. The layout of this one is similar to previous Epic Encounters — which is a good thing. What I love about this series is how modular they all are. These scale based on your level of your party and the adventure itself is strong enough to be used in just about any campaign. I mean, there’s bound to be a creepy forest in your fantasy world somewhere, right?!

Or maybe your party got teleported to one from the desert? If you’re having trouble coming up with a reason your party would find themselves in the Forest of the Damned, that’s what the “Hooks” section is all about. And there are some good ideas in there to use/borrow/steal.

This book also has two “combat” encounters outlined for the GM to use as they need. One for each of the two sides of the battle map provided. There’s even a handy mini-map for the GM to use that has points of interest/map triggers on it. Again, feel free to follow it as close or as loose as you (the GM) wants.

I do appreciate there’s plenty of text boxes in the Adventure book that you can just straight-up read to your players. Or paraphrase. Or just outright ignore. This set is a supplement for your GM prep-time. You could play it right out of the box with about 20 minutes of prep time. It’s perfect for a busy GM — all the monsters miniatures and their stats are included, too!

Again, the Adventure books are such a great resource for GMs to use or keep in their back pocket. Even if you have other uses for these miniatures you can still hang on to this book and pilfer ideas later when you need some help on your next epic campaign.

The Miniatures

The miniatures in this box are great. There’s 17 of them made from 6 unique sculpts. They come in their own plastic storage container thing. I keep all my boxes because they look cool on the shelf and it makes it really easy to store them…if you’ve got the shelf space!

The details on these are also pretty gnarly. Get it?! Because they are trees. Sorry…I had to. But seriously they are pretty well detailed. They come in that dyed brown plastic and look like this right out of the box. If you’re so inclined you could absolutely paint them. But if you’re not into that aspect of the hobby, I think they look ready for the table.

One other thing about this batch of miniatures is you get these squat tree spirits on larger bases as well. I really like the diversity of the miniatures included. It makes sense that some of these Treekin/Forest Spirits are more stumpy than others. No wonder they are mad — someone cut them up!

Again, there’s rules for all them that are compatible with 5e but you can make them work with whatever system you’re using. If you need a bunch of cool Treefolk, this set has you covered!

Forest of the Damned Coming Soon

You can pre-order this new Epic Encounter from Steamforged Games right now. Thanks again to Steamforged Games for sending me a review copy. I’m once again impressed with the contents and the quality of their Epic Encounter line!

Epic Encounters: Forest of the Damned $54.99

Something moves in the darkness between the trees. You’re not alone in this cursed forest. Branches creek, rough bark scrapes and roots writhe just out of sight. Will these wretched creatures find you ready?

Spend a short while in this forest and your gut will warn you even where your good sense fails. A sense of unspeakable wrongness hangs thick as the canopy overhead, trailing tendrils that tug ancestral memories from your bones. The twigs snapping beneath your feet are not twigs. And the prickling at the back of your neck is not from the cold. 

What’s in the box?

• • 17 Highly-detailed enemy miniatures (6 unique sculpts!)

  • Encounter booklet with stats, story hooks, tips, and tricks (5e-compatible)

  • Double-sided encounter map, for thematic battles

I think the trees are moving…and they are angry.

Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.

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