This is kind of a last minute thought/post. I am running The Marsh-bell at a convention this Saturday afternoon. I have ran the adventure twice already as an intro, and I have a good feel for how to make it work in a four-hour time slot. But I thought I'd ask others who may have more experience if they have any tips or advice as to running this as a demo.

Any thoughts?

If time is an issue (as it seems to be), try really hard to discourage players from taking care of random business around Lake-Town before talking with Gloin. I had one character messing around in town a lot, while the other 2 wanted to get the adventure started. A little bit is ok (it is an RPG, after all), but make sure they wrap it up quick, and don't be afraid to remind them that the clock is ticking.

Well, the good part is that since this is a convention game with pregens I am railroading the beginning a bit. The party consists of 4 dwarves and 1 hobbit (ala The Hobbit lite). The dwarves were requested to meet with Gloin in a matter of importance. The game will start at Gloin's doorstep, after a bit of pregame rules explanation. So the hook is a bit forced, but I feel that is expected with a con game.

I plan on having a countdown timer next to me to keep track of things. I have a bunch of homemade dice sets to help speed things along (they ain't pretty, but they are functional). I am using all the cool game aids folks have posted (like the Journey mat and Combat mat) along with some mini-counters for the party. The past two times I have ran Marsh-bell clocked in around the four-hour mark (well, the one I ran with the regular gamers went longer, as campaign games tend to go).

I am pretty confident that I can get this done in the time frame, but I would love to get advice from others to get some good ideas.

Do you have all the Journey/Travel calculations and rolls worked out? That, to me, seems like an area where game time can be saved by prepping for all travel route options.

Make sure you have the Mewlips poem on hand and either have the PCs test Song for it (giving the Hobbit a bonus) or just give it to the Hobbit PC, just after the PCs disappear due to the Marsh Bell. Honestly, it adds so much atmosphere to the scenario, especially if the player is keen enough to actually recite/sing it.

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Mewlips

This. We could not feature it in the text for licensing reasons, but it belongs there. Did anyone reposted this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ntMbUEjf0

I started thinking about the scenario as soon as I saw it.

Francesco

And the professor himself reads it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGctGyCDGYA&feature=related