Find out why humanity has always feared the wild places…
Do not mistake the forest’s quietude for mercy. Nor its shadowed depths as denser versions of its pleasant shallows. For to venture deeper is to become lost in the ancient chambers of the forest’s dark heart, where twisted and sinister things dwell. Do not lose yourself to the Woods’ darkening depths.
For no matter where you come from—no matter what daylit world you previously walked—the Woods and its sinister inhabitants will test your mettle as you wander its dusk-dark paths. Find out who you are—and what you’re made of—inside The Darkest Woods.
The Darkest Woods is a system-agnostic horror experience that seamlessly integrates into your existing campaign—no matter what game and system you’re playing. The spiritual successor to The Darkest House, The Darkest Woods will take your players on an epic—and unexpected—subplot and chill them to their cores. Unforgettable encounters will shake even the most battle-hardened characters, all while life-altering challenges will forge richer characters, deeper motivations, and more powerful party bonds.
Whether you game face-to-face or online, the unique format of The Darkest Woods makes the GM’s job easy while providing an amazingly immersive experience for the players.
Rooted In Any Setting
The hiking trail that seems to be perennially littered with missing posters. The forest children avoid on their walk home, the canopy’s shade too dark, too deep. The great, twisted tree with finger-like branches reaching towards your bedroom…
The Darkest Woods is not a single expanse of forest; rather, it is the harsh, uncaring soul of the wilderness itself, and it can be encountered wherever the wilds go untamed. Like the relentless tendrils of an invasive vine, the Darkest Woods pushes its way into our world—your world; any world—in the depths of any patch of wilderness shunned, or undiscovered, by civilization. If there are woods you can get lost in, those woods might lead you into the Darkest Woods.
Making Your Game Better
The Darkest Woods is compatible with the game you’re already playing—in fact, it’s specifically made to be integrated into your current campaign. Why? Because the Woods draws upon characters’ memories and personal fears. It challenges their very notions of morality, family, friendship, love, and truth. You can run The Darkest Woods with new characters, but it really shines when played with characters that already have history, personality, and shared bonds. The true horrors in the woods aren’t measured in hit points, but in the threat they pose to everything the PCs hold dear. In facing and surviving these challenges, your characters will emerge from the woods with greater insight into their world, their companions, and most of all themselves. The Darkest Woods was really built to be added to your existing campaign—and by deepening your PCs, it will make that campaign even better!
Choose Your Format
The Book
Perfect for in-person play
The very hefty (360-page!) hardcover makes GMing a face-to-face game easy. Each room is presented as a two-page spread, eliminating page-flipping. A shortlink and QR code for each room let you quickly download and share player-facing maps, room images, handouts, and even sound files.
You can use the book for virtual play—in fact, it’s great for that, too—but sharing resources will involve a few more clicks.
The App
A unique type of RPG product for virtual play
Much better than a PDF, the app is optimized to the unique needs of online play, making it fast-paced and easy on the GM and providing an incredibly immersive experience for the players. The Darkest Wods is fully compatible with all virtual tabletops, as well as videoconferencing, Discord or Slack play, or any other platform gamers commonly use for online TTRPG games. Scroll down for more details.
You can use the app for face-to-face play—in fact, it’s great for that, too—but the GM will need a Mac or PC.
Both Formats Give You Everything You Need:
- Weeks of high-intensity adventuring. Take your campaign somewhere new, somewhere lonely, somewhere darker…
- Hundreds of maps, handouts, audio files, messages, and other items—all with quicklinks and QR codes that make them easy to share with players.
- Easy steps to convert any character into The Darkest Woods. Quickly integrate it into 5e, Cypher, or whatever RPG system you’re playing now.
- Horrible creatures, hateful spirits, and cannibalistic cultists that call the Woods home. Encounter ephemeral “wolves,” beasts with bones of twigs and blood of sap, horrific witches, and things much more uncanny.
- Character sheets, GM and player reference sheets, and other components to streamline play.
A mega-adventure of primal horrors, mythic witches, and our deepest, most ancient fears, The Darkest Woods will push characters to their limits and force them to confront truths about themselves, forever changing them.
The App: A Different Kind of RPG Product
The Darkest Woods app is a digital product designed for the needs of a game being run and played online—and built to take maximum advantage of that mode of play. Think of it like an RPG book that’s been reimagined from the ground up for the online environment, with pages formatted for your screen, easily-sharable resources, no page-flipping, intuitive navigation, and additional features that don’t just make online gaming easier—they take advantage of its unique nature to deliver a better RPG experience. Your players may find the Darkest Woods a daunting challenge, but you’ll find it amazingly easy to GM. Check out this helpful guide to The Darkest House’s interface!
The Darkest Woods app works with your preferred online TTRPG platform. You run the game on Zoom or Discord, or a virtual tabletop like Roll20 or Foundry, or however you normally run online games. Only the GM needs a copy of The Darkest Woods, just like only the GM needs a copy of a conventional adventure book or PDF. The GM needs a desktop or laptop computer (Windows or Mac OS—your purchase includes both versions) to use The Darkest Woods.
The Darkest Woods
By Monte Cook
360-page hardcover or app for Mac or PC
$54.99 (hardcover); $44.99 (digital)
