This past Friday my neighborhood group completed my Howlmark Holiday Adventure. It was fun! By the end the players were getting more into the role playing aspect of the game, and my wife became a stand out star–inventing opportunities for an NPC who may have had to pack up and start life over somewhere else. It was set up like a Hallmark movie, so the story ended on a happy note–villains saw the error of their ways, relationships were mended, and the best holiday celebration in memory occurs. Warm and fuzzy feelings, roll the credits.

But if Woodbern, the town which serves as the backdrop for Howlmark, is more than a movie set there’s some questions which need to be answered.

• What was so valuable that the big bad tried pursue his nefarious machinations for the town?
• Big bad is gone, sure, but what about the people who worked for him? How entrenched are big bad’s people in the forest?
• Where did big bad come from?
• Are there ideological and political factions which were supporting big bad?
• What’s the Barony’s role in the larger kingdom?

Given questions like these, I asked the party, “Would you like to play clear the forest?” And the bulk of the party said, “Yup.”

So now we’re going to transition from Howlmark’s “on rails” story (remember, it was a movie) and move toward a more traditional campaign which will work though the forest that makes up the bulk The Barony of Everstinge and then go who knows where. I’ve got a number of maps made, some mysteries to explore, and a couple of world events in mind that might change things up a bit.

This is gonna be a blast.