Hey guys ive been wanting to finish off my Marsh-bell campaign with the Gathering of five armies, but (besides the second gathering in cross of celduin) i have found no real mention of what is going on there.

Any help on how to bring the gathering to life, with interesting characters, contests, feasts, ceremonies, and such?

Cheers

Yeah. I confess that I don't really know what we're 'meant' to make of the Gathering.

Was it the event at which the characters came together? Is it a thing coming up at the end of the first year that everyone can look forward to (as The Marsh Bell points towards)?

Different references to it seem to point in different directions. The Lake-town booklet offers detail on the fun and games to be had at 'Dragontide'. It'd be good to have similar for the Gathering -- or, for most of you who are further along than my group, it would have been...

--Os.

The crossing of celduin adventure does some pretty good explaining, though apparently it details the second gathering, not the first, and there is a very story-specific event there that kinda ruins the gathering...

Bounce?

I've just posted an AP of our session based on the Gathering. It doesn't directly follow on from The Marsh Bell, though, but from my version of Shadows Over Dale and is designed to feed into Tales from Wilderland. You'll also find a link there to another AP about it which I plundered for inspiration. Links in the sig.

THIS!

Starting on page 108 of Tales form Wilderland, is an excellent adventure that begins with the anniversary celebration.

This provides a great number of little tidbits, ideas, and roleplaying opportunities centered around the celebration.

Aye. Think "Oktoberfest". Add Finnish people.

The first part of Crossing gives a very good account of what the Gathering entails. Also, it's the best adventure in the book in my opinion.

I'm not sure that's necessarily helping TheLastHobbit. What I get from his initial post and this follow-up one is that he knows (and has read) the Celduin adventure from TfW but he doesn't want to use things from it as he'll be running that later in his campaign and so doesn't want to repeat himself. He's therefore looking for other ideas so that the two gatherings are different enough.

Hmmm,

You may be right - my point was that reading that - along with Ovid's latest post of his own, should hopefully spark some other ideas along that vein.

Some ideas here:

1) You absolutely require an archery contest! It should also be an opportunity to introduce characters of renown - maybe Legolas attends, as does one of Bard's men, etc. Target is a stylised Dragon (ie, Smaug).

2) Other competitions and merchants from afar should be a repeated staple of each festival. Allow recurring combatants to be present in them - therefore building up a competitive element to the different characters and cultures.

3) Gandalf and Bilbo are there.

4) As is Gwaihir - assuming he accepts the invite.

5) I have a plan for Bard to announce his marriage in my campaign. I'm yet to establish who that will be - maybe a Barding noble girl or perhaps someone of Laketown or further afield? If Bard is already wed in yours, then maybe it's an opportunity for him to announce that his Queen is expecting the birth of his heir? [I've never been able to find an official date for the birth of Bard's son Bain so I think you have some room to decide on when he was born without messing with official history, as long as he's old enough to be King from TA2977 – TA3007 you're okay].

6) There’s a re-enactment of Beorn slaying Bolg.

7) Additionally there are sombre moments remembering the fallen (eg, Thorin, Fili, Kili, etc), including reciting poems and singing songs.

8) Some details around the feast. Here's a menu for a King's Feast: http://www.gspendragon.com/feast.html ... Very easy to lift information from that and apply it here to give your descriptions some flavour.

9) I have the following Feast Cards from Pendragon:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79541775/Feast%20Cards.pdf

... Containing interesting events to add to the proceedings. Not all will be applicable as they're geared up to Pendragon and knights *but* there are some that are directly applicable and others that with just a little tweaking in their presentation will be of use.

10) Also use the feast to foreshadow potential scenarios and plot developments. Make yourself a list of things that you want to mention and/or give the PCs an opportunity to hear about.

Hope those help.

If I may be so bold, I'd go exactly the opposite route. Have them play out almost exactly the same, and have a "gag" that shows up during the first Gathering show up during the second.

You get a really good element of consistancy and familiarity when you have a common theme like this. I remembered playing a 3.0 D&D adventure called the Savage Tide. At one point, a "pickled mephit" became the recurring joke amongst our group. Everytime we engaged with one particular pirate, we found him holding his pickled mephit in a jar. The GM used it as a joke every time, almost like a "where's waldo" thing for us to find the pickled mephit and we never ceased to get a good laugh out of it.

Get *something* as a common theme for each G5A Ceremony. Any of the following could work:

-an obnoxious elf who shows up each year to make it his personal mission to beat the best archer character in the group in the archery competition.

-an over the top master of ceremonies who takes his job WAAAAAY too seriously. (think Geoffrey Chaucer from a Knight's Tale).

- A Grumpy Raven from the mountain who makes it his raison d'etre to taunt the characters. He's constantly hurling insults at them. (Triumph the insult Dog)

-An ignorant brawl breaks out at the same Tavern every year...the player-heroes are powerless to avoid it.

You can have similar elements and familiarity - yes absolutely, but I'd avoid having them play out "almost exactly the same". That sounds tedious in the extreme. The examples you give are nice embellishments though that add to familiarity rather than making it the same as last year...

Some of these are quite clever. I can hear the raven now: 'I blow my beak at you! Go away or I shall taunt you a second time!'


As for the ignorant brawl: why do I get the mental image of a couple of drunken irish brothers......twins even.....on their birthday.....arguing over who their mum loved more!


"oh crap here come the Gavin Brothers again....quick hide the good whiskey!"

I created a whole adventure around The Gathering of Five Armies celebration. Since this was the first Gathering I made it a 5 day event that was a mixture of a celebration and a market for Northern merchants (and some east and south as well). The celebration was centered on the old battle field. That worked great because of it proximity to Erebor and Dale. I took an existing map of the area and laid out where everything was for the group I am running. I threw in dignitaries and of course a fireworks display by Gandalf.

To make it a real adventure I created 5 possible mini-adventures for the Fellowship at the Gathering.

1. Food poisoning! Someone has poisoned Dalla the Baker's pies and they are making festival goers sick. If the party is interested they can help determine what happened and track down the person/people responsible. (This was not an evil act just a misguided attempt to put a rival out of business).

2. To catch a thief. Someone or some ones have been able to slip past the guards and steal things from various merchant tents. One of which might be a player character's tent.

3. Deja-vue! A valuable dragon statue has been stolen from Gismund the Jeweler. Round up the usual "suspect". Party must track down the dragon statue before the blame is put on the hobbit. (Inside Fellowship joke)

4. A thief has pickpocked you or attempted to pickpocket you. What are you going to do?

5. There is a spy amongst us. A group of citizens are worried that the Easterling merchant that set up shop in Dale is a spy. They want you to investigate.

They ended up only being able to do 2 of them before the end of the celebration.

I also gave them 8 competitions they could enter.

Archery
Riddles
Song
Barrel racing (in the river)
Boat racing
Horse racing
Drinking contest
Pie eating contest

They weren't meant to win these because they are still lower skill levels but in 5 years at the next Gathering they will have a good chance to win. This is to make it more enjoyable when they come back and beat the person that won this time. To my surprise one of the Fellowship came very close to winning the Archery contest.

To round everything off and give it a feel of a large gathering I created 50 possible rumors they could overhear at the celebration/market. Each was random. Some of the rumors were totally false, some had a grain of truth, some foreshadowed future adventures and others were complete truths. My group really enjoyed the rumors.

Overall I got a full 6 - 8 hours of game play out of this.

Awsome ideas Celebril and Rich H, i will be sure to use both

celebril, do you possibly have a written copy of yorr gathering adventure? i would love to check it out

Unfortunately, I don't have it written up in a coherent fashion. It is mostly notes and lists of places and major characters. The two exceptions are the list of rumors and the maps. I could write it all up on Sunday and send it to you if that would be ok.

The rumors are actually the one thing I would be most interested in perusing....please.

Here are the rumors. I should explain a couple of things. The "King of Gondor" rumors are about a Rhovanion farm boy that I made up to entertain the players. When they met him for the first time he asked the players, "Would you like to buy the King of Gondor a drink?" He was meant to just be comic relief but the players had so much fun with him that he took a life of his own. So I created a back story for him and started him on a quest to collect misguided followers. The players will eventually meet up with him again. So that is why there are rumors about him. Bilbrane is a player's Hobbit character who is Pipeweed merchant but because of how I introduced him to the rest of the Fellowship he has a reputation of having a little too sticky of fingers. I removed rumor 50 because I don't want my players stumbling accross it by accident. It foreshadows an adventure I have written for them and they never heard the rumor at the celebration. Some of the rumors below are completely false, some have a grain of truth, some are completely factual and other were meant to potentially lead to mini-adventures around the Gathering of Five Armies celebration if the players had so chosen to investigate. I also made it possible to stumble across the adventures to without hearing the rumors.

1. The sons of Grimarr the Friendly (sarcastic), Jonar, Kelmund and Finnar, have been causing trouble again in Dale. (These 3 were involved in the story, Don't Leave the Path).

2. People have been getting sick from something they ate at the faire.

3. The Elf-king won't be attending the celebration because some dwarf pissed him off.

4. The White Wizard has made the journey to Dale. (Saruman at this point in time)

5. A party of adventurers saved the Woodland Hall.

6. Wargs have been seen around the East Bight.

7. Bilbo Baggins has come to celebrate the Gathering of the Five Armies.

8. No one invited Bilbo Baggins to the celebration.

9. Prince Bain is the spitting image of his father.

10. A lot more Easterlings have been seen in the Kingdom

11. My brother was attacked and eaten by spiders along the Elf Path.

12. My cousin's wife's brother, Oddvar, said he saw a dragon while traveling along the northern edges of Mirkwood.

13. The Elf Path is haunted. I saw a corpse piering at me through the trees on my last travel along the path. I will not be going that way again.

14. I hear there is a new Inn between the Old Ford and the Forest gate run by a peculiar set of Hobbits.

15. Someone said they saw Gandalf the Grey earlier.

16. King Bard and King Dain are not on speaking terms any more.

17. Some say the werewolves of Mirkwood are raiding outlying settlements for food. But I don't believe that old wives tell. Werewolves!? Bah, too much mead and pipeweed me thinks.

18. "Did you hear?" "The King of Gondor has returned and he his here in Dale."

19. There is some lunatic going around calling himself the "King of Gondor". He looks like he should be calling himself the "King of Pigs". What kind of King carries around a club as a weapon?

20. I hear that King Bard has turned away the "King of Gondor". This could mean trouble between Dale and Gondor.

21. The Elf King saved the Woodmen from attack. Without his assistance they would surely have fallen.

22. I heard that horse stealing has all but vanished around Southern Rhovanion. Can you believe that? The horse stealing capital of Middle Earth.

23. I hear there are old elvish ruins in Northern Mirkwood along the Old Great Road that are overflowing with treasure just waiting to be taken.

24. I hear the Eagles have been invited to the celebrations. Who is going to pay for all the live stock they eat.

25. No one has seen Beorn. I wonder if he is coming to the celebration.

26. My cousin just came back from Bree. He said he encountered several groups of elves on the road. I wonder where they could be going.

27. I hear elves are moving back into Southern Mirkwood. It won't be long now before we can hunt in those woods in safety.

28. Did you see the Easterling on the fairgrounds selling Valar knows what?

29. I got really sick earlier from eating Dalla the Baker's mince pie. I love her mince pies but after that I won't be eating her pies any more.

30. I hear that Bilbrane Broadfoot has the best pipeweed in all of the Kingdom of Dale.

31. I hear that Bilbrane Broadfoot is a thief and cannot be trusted. But I really do like his pipeweed.

32. There are Rohirrim traders here in Dale. Can you believe that! Now if I only had the money to buy those fine looking horses.

33. I used to be an adventure like you until my wife left me for a sailor.

34. I was going to enter the pie eating contest but rumor has it that Bombur the Fat is going to also enter. I don't stand a chance against him.

35. My cousin has joined up with that northman calling himself Aldamir the Second, supposed King of Gondor. I think he is being hoodwinked but he would have none of my advice. Kept going on about how he was going to help the King return to Gondor. Idiot!

36. Elstan,the First Captain of Dale, is a sure to win the horse competition.

37. "I hear a young female elf from Mirkwood is the archer to beat in the archery competition." Another pipes in, "I hear she is very pretty to."

38. "The elves think they are the best bowmen in all Middle Earth. They clearly haven't seen me shot a bow yet."

39. "The dwarves seem to have all the good tent spots at the faire grounds. That is so unfair. I wonder who they bribed to get those."

40. "I hear the dwarves are going to bring out the Arkenstone for the celebration!" Another person comments, "No way would they do that! It would just invite every thief within a hundred leagues to show up."

41. "There is a section of the side of Erebor (Lonely Mountain) that is off limits. I wonder what the dwarves are up to."

42. "If I would have known there was going to be a masked ball after the opening ceremonies then I would have sold masks at my booth. Those merchants are making a killing."

43. "My coin purse was taken today!" Another person, "Yeah I heard there is a cut-purse ring that has set up shop at our celebration." Yet another person, "I heard there is a reward for finding the culprit or culprits."

44. "Did you hear, Gismund the Jeweler's prized Dragon Statue was stolen, again." "He is blaming some Hobbit."

45. "I heard that several of the merchants were robbed last night after dark." "They had things taken from their tents."

46. You stop at a soothsayer's tent. She invites you in and asks if you want your future read. Thinking how fun and harmless this must be you agree to have your fortune told. She appears to go into a trance. Then her eyes open very wide. "There is a great darkness arising from that which was thrown down. You are in grave danger. You must steel your heart for the time when you will be in the realm of spirit and man." "Take heed of my warning." Her eyes then snap open and she looks puzzled for a moment and then says, "Shall we begin?"

47. "I hear the high pass over the Misty Mountains has become a little more dangerous. The goblins seem to have been a little more bold recently. It is best to travel in groups."

48. You strike up a conversation with an Elf. Eventually the conversation turns to Mirkwood. As if talking to himself he looks off in the distance and says, "Something stirs in Mirkwood. What it is we don't know but it is best to be on guard."

49. "My cousin, who is a scullery maid at the castle, says that there is some big, important meeting taking place during the celebrations at the castle."

50. <removed because it could forshadow a future adventure>

These are great! Thank you for sharing! Just the right amount of humor in it too. Especially 33: used to be an adventurer until my wife left me for a sailor. Got a good chuckle out of me.