The Marsh Bell - is it fun?

[Geomtje]

I wouldn't run it as a first ever adventure, because it's not great at telegraphing to the players what is actually expected of them.

Not sure if I agree. I've played the Marsh Bell with my friends as out first RPG ever. Yes we stumbled through it, but I feel that it had to do with lack of knowledge of the rules and the fact that the LM was reading the adventure for the first time as we went trough it. He had not prepared.

Having played a couple of sessions since and hosting the Marsh Bells as a LM for a couple of friends who have never played a RPG, I found that they were quick to understand the mechanics and also got around quite well, story wise.

Having that said, I do feel that an adventure like Theft of the Moon, and probably others, has more benefits in learning the game as a first timer and this would probably make it easier to understand. That also why I am using the framework of Theft of the Moon as a guide for my own adventure that I will be hosting for a couple of first timers.

As a disclaimer I would like to note that I am still fairly new to RPGs and not as seasoned as some, likely most, of you. So this is from the perspective of a new guy with the best intentions, who has fallen in love with the game.

[Geomtje]

At the end of The Marsh Bell I had the players defeat a group of Marsh dwellers to rescue the dwarves, that was a success and felt like a win for the group.
Only when the group went searching for a way out and treasure did I hit them with an owerwhelming force. Escape with the dwarves was a success again.
I like the idea, that you cannot clear the dungeon like we did in D&D.

We expanded a lot on the ending, though. The companions had failed to find the dwarven treasure, so the two dwarves insisted on going back to the camp. The gore-crows persued them relentlessly…

…Yet the elf’s arrows flew true and the vile beast was slain. The remaining marsh-dwellers fled howling into the woods and the companions could escape to safety with what little stamina and will they had left.

And this one of the reasons why I like this game so much and why I keep getting more excited as I learn new stuff! Endless possibilities! You guys and everybody else on this forum give me so much inspiration on what I could do and introduce me to things that I have not even thought of! Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I am just so damn excited!

So I think its only fair to say thank you guys and everybody else on this forum: Thanks for all the help; you are great! And also for Cubicle 7 for making this this awesome game!

[Lifstan]

Aside from introduction to game mechanics, did your group actually find this adventure fun? Should I start with Tales of Wilderland instead?

It was the first scenario my group played and we had so much fun it convinced my players to continue the campaign. It's maybe not the best scenario for TOR, but it's a good introduction.

That being said, Don’t Leave the Path, the first scenario in Tales of Wilderland, is very straight forward. Most scenario of TOR are railroady, but that one is especially railroady. Basically, it's just about following a path (ence the title). I think it could be an issue if you play with experienced players and that's there first taste of the game. Maybe starting with Of Leaves & Stewed Hobbit, the second scenario in Tales of Wilderland would be the right choice if you're looking for something more epic (way more epic than The Marsh Bell and Don’t Leave the Path).

Another solution would be to start with the first scenario of Darkening of Mirkwood...

[Majestic]

My players had a blast with Marsh Bell. Solving the mysteries surrounding the drowned city is one of their main goals now and they frequently go out of their way in order to learn more about it. The city, the crows, the bell, the marsh-dwellers themselves - so many questions are left unanswered. If their enthusiasm persists this will certainly play a major part at the end of DoM (going full circle would be really sweet).

We expanded a lot on the ending, though. The companions had failed to find the dwarven treasure, so the two dwarves insisted on going back to the camp. The gore-crows persued them relentlessly and soon they spotted marsh-dwellers lurking behind the trees, seemingly always one step ahead of them. The companions were spooked and decided to press on through the night.
When they reached the campsite they found two marsh-dwellers huddled over the corpse of the troll, but the wretches hissed and ran away when they approached. They found that they had covered the corpse in mud and leaves as if to bury it. Had their nightly advance prevented something terrible from happening here? Yet another question left unanswered...
When they reached the edge of the woods suddenly a great murder of gore-crows descended, cawing frantically. A large tree came falling down, blocking their exit route on the river. Then, from the murky waters arose a host of marsh-dwellers, aided by a marsh-hag, completely surrounding the boat. Yet the elf’s arrows flew true and the vile beast was slain. The remaining marsh-dwellers fled howling into the woods and the companions could escape to safety with what little stamina and will they had left.

Sounds like a lot of fun, The_Vanguard!

[farinal]

It would add to the immersion and theme to give out the Mewlips poem by Tolkien to the players. It is printed in the Adventures of Tom-Bombadil book. Also it would be nice to perhaps play one of these at the background before, during or after the adventure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ntMbUEjf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGctGyCDGYA

[Geomtje]

Finished LM’ing the Marsh Bell this weekend. Had a lot of fun overall and the ending was a lot better than I had remembered. Partly because we picked up last session right before the players found the dwarfs and I had to add a little something-something to have a couple hour session, in a similar, yet different, fashion as some of you have suggested. Fun non the less!

[Moria Firefly]

My group just finished the Theft of the Moon! I was worried about my best friend as he is an old school D&D/Pathfinder guy but he loved the TOR rules the best!

I had my group first create characters before running Theft of the Moon, then they used the pre-gens for Theft. I felt this would be good for them to see how the skills, attributes, traits, etc worked on the pre-gens first and then they could go back and adjust things they want (or don't) want on their created characters.

We start The Marsh Bell this Friday! I was pretty nervous as I've been a player at Gen Con but never a Loremaster, especially for a old time D&D group. I forgot things or remember things wrong but we got through it and I'm glad to have practiced with Theft of the Moon before heading out on the main campaign.

I definitely give a huge thumbs up for Theft of the Moon as a welcome to TOR game!

[Majestic]

That's a great idea, to kind of do a 'test run' first.

One thing I often do is allow my players to make some adjustments, especially after the first session, where they might want to move some numbers around on their character sheet, or adjust skills based on how they saw them actually work in practice.

In TOR I did this with one of my players, who picked one of the backgrounds that fit, but then found out how brutal it was going to be having a 2 Heart score. I let him move 1 point from one of the other stats to Heart.