I ran the Marsh Bell today with a group of 12 to 13 year olds and one 16 year old.

It went very well. I didn't explain the advancement system as it was a one off and we left some of the peripheral complexity unsaid as it didn't turn up. However, the simplicity of the system was well matched and they picked it up quickly.

The system did a good job of adding in good building blocks without the clutter. Having to choose a Fellowship Focus is the seed to thinking about the bonds of Fellowship, without being a burdensome relationship map. The Journey and Shadow systems gave the players a basis from which to role-play their PCs in a variety of circumstances in a manner that was effective compared to other RPGs I have run for them.

Combat was awesome. They loved it. It was filled with real choices, yet open to colourful narrative. It was damn exciting to boot. They had both a fight against a troll and a retreat from an uncountable horde of monsters.

The scenario is quite simple, but after hearing about the connection to the creepy Mewlips poem from Adventures of Tom Bombadil, it ended up being very creepy and flavourful. One of the funniest parts was a player expressing surprise at Song being a Skill, only for it to be probably the most used Skill in the game, including a the full Mewlips poem. The system definitely helps you get into that Tolkien narrative style.

Some great scenes:

- after the Elf PC insulting some Elves, another PC started humming an Elvish song recalling the long history of the Elves, hoping to subtly smooth things over. He failed and looked to the players to agree to use a Fellowship point to let him succeed. One player agreed but the other three didn't. This transferred in game to the PC humming the tune and looking just plain awkward as the other PCs looked on in silent bewilderment.

- a PC who was from Dale and rubbish in the wild took to entertaining the other PCs with jokes on the journey. One of the other PCs saw him as a rival. During the troll battle, the Dalish PC did little until the last minute where he frag whored the troll. This was after the PC who saw him as a rival went all out to attack and intimidate the troll (successfully) only to get knocked out of the combat at the final moment.

The rivalry deepened as a result and when the Dalish PC later gained a Shadow point he described it as his PC seeing himself of greater worth. Shortly after the PC found a fabulous jewel gained another Shadow point, and described it as coveting it. After all didn't he deserve it!

This whole development happened in a single session and was well developed for a 13 year old boy. It looks set to get very interesting in the future as the PC starts to loose himself in his own pride and his rival gets even more frustrated.

- the final battle to escape a horde of monsters was great. The combat handled the chase with high drama, as well as the earlier straight up fight, with ease. It was a sublime balance between simple mechanics yet meaningful choices.

When I said I was happy to run them another adventure in three weeks, I got a round of applause, which was a pretty good sign I think

Thanks for sharing, Skywalker! I'm looking forward to running this adventure soon.

I have a question:

"Combat was awesome. They loved it. It was filled with real choices, yet open to colourful narrative. It was damn exciting to boot. They had both a fight against a troll and a retreat from an uncountable horde of monsters.... the final battle to escape a horde of monsters was great. The combat handled the chase with high drama, as well as the earlier straight up fight, with ease. It was a sublime balance between simple mechanics yet meaningful choices."

Is there a mechanic for retreating? How did you work that out?

Check out the Adventurer's Book page 163.

Each of the combat stances have tasks which can be attempted instead of attacking, one which all of the stances allow is escape combat.

At the end of the round, make an Athletics roll TN 10 + highest opponent's Attribute. If you succeed you may escape combat. You need a great or extraordinary success if you are engaged with multiple opponents.

My read on the multiple opponents part is that you only count as engaged if you have more than one monster on you.

E

As I understand it, the marshes are shadowlands, so have a corrupting influence.

Travelling by boat would require four Corruption tests and by foot it would be eight.

Has everyone been using the Corruption rules in the Marsh Bell?

The maths suggests that most characters will fail two or three rolls each way and that's before they even get to the Old Forest road and start the adventure.

Given there are two other occassions for gaining Shadow in Marsh Bell - the amulet and the bell - I just went with a single Corruption roll.

Yeah, I pretty much went the same way. Also there was a big enough learning curve for the rest of the system because although it is fairly easy it is also quite different.

E

Basically, its a per the rules.

The 6 PCs were leading Balin and Oin out whilst a horde of Mewlips bore down on them. I said that they could have 2 PCs in Rearward position allowing them to escape freely but the other 3 PCs had to be in melee (they had a Hound of Mirkwood).

So, two went back - Lifstan who was helping the Dwarves and Trotter with his Bow - whilst the other three did a fighting retreat.

Each PC was attacked by 2 Mewlips. If they didn't kill either then they would need to make an Athletics test to escape and need a great success as per the rules. If they cut down one, it was just a normal Athletics test.

Anyway, they managed to cut down one Mewlip each (they were awesome) and then went to escape. They all failed. It was very tense. They decided to spend 3 Fellowship points to narrate how the encouragement of Lifstan, the covering fire of Trotter and the first unified effort of the other three PCs allowed them to escape.

It was sort of the defining moment of the group being formed into a Fellowship.

I downplayed advancement and experience in the first session. I also only focussed on Traits as autosuccesses. The system went swimmingly, even reduced down. The cool thing is that next session, I can start introducing some of the additional parts and the group should have no issues as they really got the basics.

Yep and you can escape freely from Rearward stance. This really gives a sense of some doing a fighting withdrawl so that others in the group can get away.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Skywalker. It sounded cool. I hope my bunch of grown men, who are all seasoned gamers of 20-35 years' pedigrees, have as good an attitude.

• You did it all in one session? (even stripped down, as you said).
• Did you use the potted characters, or did that include character generation?!
• And how long was the session?

I haven't completely formulated my intentions yet, but especially after re-reading the poem 'The Mewlips', I wanted them to get to close quarters with a marsh-dweller or two with the 'leisure' to examine it a bit -- discover it to be carrying a sack of human bones? -- before all the marsh-dwellers come on at them in a fearsome tide that they simply have to flee.

I expect to require Stealth, give them a sighting showing there's a number of marsh-dwellers about the place, and then inflict a combat in which they have to kill quickly and quietly or fear the worst... (Marsh-dwellers fight in eerie silence, and as they don't wield weapons there isn't automatically going to be the ring of steel on steel.)

But oh, I'd like to have them get their hands on a point or two of treasure as they pull out. (One of my players is particularly 'motivated and gifted' in that direction.) But I say that because I reckon the marsh-dwellers' ancient gold should have a hint of corruption to it like the hoards of Smaug or the Barrow-wight. :evil:
I don't mean to be horrible to my players, and will let them benefit from the take, but not without consequences... It can add a twist or two to the next couple of years' Fellowship Phases (maybe a couple of 20 minute mini-Adventuring Phases embedded in them).

Cheers!
--Os.

• Yep
• Potted characters
• 2.5 hours

On saying that, the young players don't tend to expand many scenes the way older ones do for purelycharacter reasons. I think 3 hours would be a good estimate if you weren't looking to expand the scenario significantly.

In terms of the Mewlips, the Hobbit recited it just after they entered the lair. It was very creepy. When the PCs went to rescue Balin, one PC looked down the Mewlips tunnel and saw an eeire golden candlelight. I then described the sound of flip flap swish of feet sidling along the floor. Having descriptions directly match the poem freaked them out as they knew the later passages about creeping fingers and sacks of bones. They pretty much ran and never really got a good look at them, which is probably for the best

So, I didn't have the Mewlips appear until after they found Balin and instead used the atmosphere to build dread. So I didn't have Mewlips randomly wandering the cellars.

I ran the game with a group of seasoned players as well, all with home generated characters. We went through the entire scenario is about 3-4 hours (it was kind of being used as a fill-in game for someone elses Dark Heresy game). I didn't use the troll encounter, but they had a Hazard during the first part of the journey while they were looking for any sign of a boat (Balin and Oin used one to get down river). They found one, by the time they got the chance to identify it they were being attacked by Orc Fighters from the Misty Mountains (probably some of those who fled the battle of five armies and have been living in the wilds since).

They almost investigated the Marsh Dwellers treasure room, but decided to investigate other areas first and then chose to leave once they found the dwarves.

I didn't remember the mewlips poem when I reffed it though so they didn't get that bit.

E