I have maybe one too many questions...

Ok, so my gaming clan has decided to put me in charge of re-making the forum's theme from scratch.

The way I have the forum looking in my head seems almost impossible to do.

Is there a way I can move the Navigation bar to the side? or the top?

This is the look that I'm trying to achieve. http://www.awesomestyles.com/phpbb3-styles/demo/attriuum

Is there anyway to make it look like this?

the header alignment is normal
there is a header and a navbar under it in that attriuum example.

if you use larger image with those description you'll get the effect.
But to get the drop down menu you will need template editing.

phpbb3 hasn't got it yet!

in a sense you can get that theme on phpbb3
but if you want that theme identically I suggest switiching to punBB, and playing with the template editing.

html coding will be required, but you can do pretty much anything afterwards