In order to run the forums through regular templates, the user-guide provides the following instructions:
If you absolutely must, there is a way to run your Forum through the standard EE template engine:
1. Create a Template as normal in the main Templates tab of the Control Panel. Name it as you want.
2. Inside that new Template, place this code and only this code:
{exp:forum}I am assuming I first need to create a Template group and then create a template inside it: is it so? Or, am I missing something?