Okay so I',m envisioning yo start next year with a TOR campaign, but this time I want to make it a life long game where the characters start as kids and then grow up during the campaign ( maybe have 8-10 years between each adventure), I have some initial ideas about the rest of the game, what I cant seem to come up with is what the startting adventure should be about, what type of adventure could a group of teens go to that both represents the Middle Earth feel as well as being challenging?


Also what changes would you make to the character creation to simulate younger characters?

I once started one of my campaigns back in adnd with the characters having to deliver a cooking recepy to the other side of the dalelands.

It was an excuse to get them travelling and of course they found plenty of other adventures in the town and villages they crossed.

As food plays a major part in tolkiens world, it might be a good idea having teens beeing given such a quest from their aunt, uncle, grandmother etc.

I don't know how that would work with a group composed of a dwarf a hobbit an elf an a bjeorning though. Might be strange.

Maybe this would work for teen-agers from the same culture and actually living in the same area.

Food based quest is definitely appropriate flavor.


My first thought however was some sort of "rite of passage" test - either one based on the culture/community, or even just a social circle clique thing among peers.

(like daring our friends to visit a cemetery at night or go into the run down "haunted house" of the neighborhood).

Robert

Are they all going to come from th same culture, or at least,fairly similar ones like Beornings and Woodmen? When you say kids, do you mean children, or do you mean young adolescents on the cusp of manhood?

Not sure if gonna make em kids or actual teens...depends on the story.

Ok, I would not alter the character building process in the slightest. Instead, I would set all TN's at 2points higher for adolescents and 4points higher for children. I would increase weapon base damage by 2 and 4 (for foes only) based on the same equation. I would then decrease base damage for the characters by a factor of -1 and -2 accordingly.Encounters would need to be seriously scaled down as a single Orc could be a real menace to a fellowship of young children.
Thus, in an adolescents game, the default TN becomes 16 and in a children game it becomes 18.
The brigand who pursues them has a base axe damage of 7 against adolescents and a base of 9 against children. This abstracts the fact that they can soak up less endurance damage.
Likewise, the base damage of their own weapons is reduced to take into account that they have less strength and skill.

'Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf'- adventure seed aimed at children and adolescents from the Beorning or Woodmen cultures.

It is 2943 and things are looking bleak for the King of the Wolves. Since the unfortunate incident with those Dwarfs and their pesky, fire slinging Wizard, life has progressed from bad to worse. Not only is his once luxuriant pelt fire singed and scabrous but he has lost his sight in one eye. A filthy upstart has usurped his position as the alpha male and he has been forced into exile from his pack. The last he knew of them was that they had departed for the north to join in a gathering for a great battle. None have since returned.
The Woodmen from the south continue to infringe upon his old territory and his old Goblin allies are reluctant to leave the safety of their caves at Goblin Town. It is spring at last and the winter has been hard upon him. Hunger is a constant companion and his injuries mean that he is not the hunter he once was.
The axes and spears of the Human's are starting to hold no fear for him as he contemplates two legged prey.
In the Woodman/Beorning village, a spring festival is approaching. Most of the men are absent on a hunting trip and the task of protecting the women and children as they gather fruit and berries for the celebration falls to the older boys. The old wolf stalks the laughing women and children before striking. He attempts to carry off a child. Can the boys stop him and if not, are they yet man enough to follow him to his lair and slay him before he kills again?

The teens/kids in a given area are getting a bad rep for small thefts. Mostly food and small 'camping' items like blankets, firewood, hatchet, etc.

The kids take it upon themselves to find out who is really behind it. Is it someone or something from the nearby marshes or maybe living in one of the caves up in the woods, etc.

Mitch