Take up the mantle of Warden.  Journey through the Seven Forests, and commune with the Logrus Willows in each to gain its power. Learn the secret of your Master's passing. 

Seven Willows is a mini-rpg about traveling through, exploring, and then mastering a magical valley.  The zine is compatible as an adventure with 5e, pathfinder 2nd edition, and OSR games, in case you don't want to switch systems.

You're on a clock.  While on this adventure, you'll:

• Journey across seven forests, each with unique environmental effects and challenges!
• Learn 30+ spells!
• Meet, fight, dispel, and tame 24+ creatures, such as Beholders and the magnificent Jabberwocky!
• Go fishing, foraging, and hunting, and enjoy the unique bounties of the seven forests!
• Collect 32+ pieces of magical armor, compasses, weapons, torches, lassos, and other useful pieces of loot!
• Travel   across a large hexmap!
• Play by yourself, with a referee, or with up to 5 other players!

How to Play

Your character only needs a 6-sided die (d6!) to play. They'll roll up 7 times whenever faced with a challenge, whether they're exploring or fighting. Your gear and spells will offer you plenty of bonuses, penalize your enemy, and otherwise change the conditions of the Seven Forests' test. You have many resources at your disposal, but you're lacking in one.

Time.

All actions in the game have a time cost. You can fill out your day to the maximum time allotted, but magic, conditions, creatures, regional effects, and weather will throw off your daily plans, along with your sense of time. Sacrifice sleep to travel more, sacrifice travel to spend more time in preparation and camping, sacrifice camping and prep time to sleep longer!

The Story

Your character (or characters, if you're playing with friends) is the apprentice of a Warden. This Warden has for many years taught you how to hunt, fish, tell good plants from bad ones (and why), and the basics of primal magic. You were never permitted to enter your master's valley until ready for your final test.  This test was supposed to be guided by your master, but they fell ill and died swiftly thereafter. You're armed only with a cryptic journal, your master's gear, and your wit. You're instructed to bond with the Logrus Willows in each forest's heart to take control, but something is happening in the Warden's absence.

Equipment and Spells

Our gear comes under 5 types or classes; beastmaster, pathfinder, skirmisher, stalker, and woodsman. You can use all gear at any time, but various spells, boons, and even encounters will provide you with bonuses to types and even to specific pieces of gear.

Beastmasters  are concerned with taking the forest's denizens on as companions, giving them purpose and securing safe passage through the seven forests. As such, their gear includes whips, aromatics, lassos, bait, and blowguns.

Pathfinders  make their bones through discovery and careful notation of their surroundings. Skill in combat is second to strategic advantage, gained through clever use of flares, markers, torches, swords, and compasses.

Skirmishers  like to get up close and personal, but always ensure they have an escape route. 

Stalkers  prefer to handle their prey from afar, along with any other problems solved by binoculars,  muskets, bows, spears, and revolvers. 

Woodsmen  use axes, bombs, fishing and camping gear, and more to make the most out of the wilds.

Encounters and Healing

This zine's campaign is  replayable! The map, encounter tables, adjustable forest positions, and more all ensure this game can be played over and over, and no two runs will be the same! Additionally, the forests' positions can be swapped around, as can monster lairs, loot, caches, and other special encounters.

Not everything you come across in the woods is a test of how accurate your bow is. You're the forest's new Warden;  not  its exterminator. Spying on the forest's inhabitants, chatting with them, providing them with health or food, and using magic can all lead to outcomes far more interesting than death.

It's easy to get beat up by the forest, but it's hard for it to kill you. This is your  test, remember? The forests are without a  warden, and you're all they have left. As long as you've managed to bond with even  one  of the willows, you'll rise from the grave, sometime after you've passed. 

When you get knocked to 0 health, you don't die, that comes later. For each  harm  you take thereafter, you choose whether to accrue penalties to health, equipment, or your challenge rolls. When you reach -7 health, that's when you truly die. But you probably won't get that far, instead choosing to let a critter chip your sword, tear links from your chain shirt, ruin your travel packs. Cooking and resting are your ticket to recovering lost health, whereas maintenance helps restore damaged equipment. This process actually helps boost you beyond your basic health and equipment statistics! The benefits are temporary, but more than make up for your losses.

This will in turn help protect you from  Despoilers;  those not of the forests, come to loot and pillage without regard for its health. 

Stretch Goals

Here's where we'll track our different stretch goals for the campaign! Our prior crowdfunding efforts unlocked 2 stretch goals, both of which will benefit the backers of this campaign.

Additional Info

This zine is compatible with 5E, Pathfinder 2e, and various old-school games (OSE, Advanced 1st edition, etc). This compatibility will increase the more funding we get!

We're using DrivethruRPG to fulfill our lovely physical products! We've used them for fulfillment in the past, and neither we nor our backers have  ever  been disappointed by their prints!

In case you got here from somewhere else, we're launching this campaign as a part of Zinequest! We're mostly used to launching bigger tomes for players and game refs alike to enjoy, so this is a lovely change of pace. Believe it or not, 30-60 page books are pretty easy to make, both logistically and from a game design perspective.